A consortium of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) today took a shot at breaking up ABN Amro Holding NV’s agreed sale to Barclays PLC by making a contingent offer valued at about 76 billion euros (US$103.75 billion), higher than Barclays’s 64.9 billion euro offer.

The consortium, which includes Fortis NV and Santander Central Hispano SA, offered 39 euros a share, to be made 70% in cash and 30% in RBS shares.

The consortium said their offer would be contingent on ABN’s Chicago-based LaSalle unit remaining in ABN. That would break ABN’s agreement to sell LaSalle to Bank of America Corp. for $US21 billion,. Resolving whether the sale of LaSalle can be undone is a linchpin to the RBS bid succeeding.

Fitch Ratings says it has taken no rating action following the news of the possible competing bid for ABN.

Fitch says it will monitor developments and assess the impact on the banks if or when a formal offer is made and more detailed information is available.

“The price indication is higher than the recommended offer by Barclays, based on the consortium’s belief that it can extract greater integration benefits and synergies. A key condition of a potential transaction is that the US-based La Salle Bank remains within the ABN AMRO group,” Fitch said.