ABN Amro

The Dutch Supreme Court will issue its ruling on ABN AMRO's suspended sale of its U.S. unit LaSalle on Friday and the decision could sway an acrimonious takeover battle for the Dutch bank.

Progress made by Britain's Barclays in its offer for ABN AMRO demonstrates its ability to offer the Dutch bank's shareholders certainty and deliverability, Chief Executive John Varley said on Wednesday.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and its partners seeking to buy Dutch rival ABN AMRO for 71 billion euros ($96.6 billion) do not know many of the key facts relating to their target, documents showed on Tuesday.

Dutch Advocate General says ABN can sell its U.S. bank, LaSalle, without a shareholder vote.

Spain's Iberdrola said on Tuesday it will make a share issue to help finance its $4.5 billion cash purchase of U.S. regional gas and electricity supply company Energy East before completing the deal in the second half of 2008.

Santander will sell Spanish property assets for 4 billion euros (2.7 billion pounds) to help fund its participation in a bid for Dutch bank ABN AMRO , an official at the Spanish bank said on Wednesday. The official, confirming a report in El Pais newspaper, said Santander, one of Europe's biggest banks, would make capital gains of 1.4 billion euros from the sales and wanted to go ahead with them even if the ABN deal fell through.

Barclays has drawn up contingency plans for a big cash sweetener to strengthen its all-share offer for Dutch bank ABN AMRO, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Listings by big European and emerging markets companies are helping equity capital markets activity pick up steam again after the market correction in May and June

Nine leading investment banks have signed a Letter of Intent and Team Sheet to create a trade data and market dissemination platform.

U.S. housing starts fell more sharply than expected to the lowest rate in more than three years, while core producer prices dipped unexpectedly, according to government reports on Tuesday that confirmed a fast-cooling economy.

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's public support for a strong dollar on Tuesday failed to fully convince the foreign exchange market, which is now bracing for further weakness in the U.S. currency.

Britain's FTSE 100 index closed sharply higher on Friday as fresh bid talk buoyed mortgage bank Alliance & Leicester, while the Midcap 250 index hit a fresh high led by brewer Greene King.