De Vries, pumps his fist in the air after a Dutch court ruling in Amsterdam
Peter Paul de Vries, chief of the Dutch shareholders group VEB, pumps his fist in the air after a court in Amsterdam ruled in favour of the group May 3, 2007. The commercial court ruled that ABN AMRO, the Netherlands' biggest, must freeze its $21 billion sale of U.S. unit LaSalle to Bank of America, opening up the possibility of a rival bid by a consortium of three banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). ABN had previously agreed to be bought by British Bank Barclays for 63.26 billion euros ($86 billion) but the RBS consortium wants to bid more, as much as 72 billion euros, but only if LaSalle remains part of ABN. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen (NETHERLANDS)