BofA LaSalle suit delayed, key court guidance nears

AMSTERDAM/LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) Bank of America's plan to take Dutch bank ABN AMRO to court has been delayed as the parties wait for the Dutch Supreme Court to rule on ABN's frozen sale of its U.S. unit LaSalle in mid-July.

The sale of ABN's U.S. arm, LaSalle Bank, is seen as the key issue in an acrimonious takeover battle for ABN which pits Barclays against a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland.

An indication of how the Supreme Court will rule will come from the court's advocate general, responsible for providing the court with an opinion on the case before a ruling, ''as soon as possible after June 18,'' the Dutch Supreme Court said in a statement.

The opinion will be released to interested parties and a final ruling would be rendered by mid-July, the Dutch Supreme Court added. The parties include Bank of America, ABN, and the consortium of RBS, Santander and Fortis, as well as Dutch investor group VEB, which sued to have the LaSalle sale stopped.

Bank of America, which sued ABN AMRO over the frozen LaSalle deal in a U.S. court, has asked for a delay in its lawsuit in the U.S. Southern New York District Court because it wanted to wait for the outcome of the appeal in the Dutch Supreme Court, a spokesman for the U.S. bank said.

An opinion from the Dutch advocate general would give an indication of how the court will rule on LaSalle. A source said the court could choose to make the advocate general's advice public.

ABN agreed in April to sell Chicago-based LaSalle to Bank of America, in a side deal to its agreement to be taken over by Barclays in an all-share transaction currently worth 66 billion euros (.9 billion).

The RBS consortium trumped that with an offer worth 71 billion euros for ABN, but it is conditional on also buying LaSalle.

The consortium and some ABN investors then succeeded in getting Amsterdam's commercial court to freeze the Las Salle sale because it was a pivotal deal that needed shareholder approval, even though ABN was not required to seek approval to sell the U.S. bank.

A takeover of ABN would be the biggest bank takeover.

If the Dutch Supreme Court upholds the Enterprise Court ruling, ABN is expected to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) shortly afterwards.

If the court says the LaSalle sale to BofA should stand, the consortium's bid for ABN would lapse, although it could revise its offer for the rest of the Dutch bank.

ABN shares rose 0.6 percent to trade at 35.91 euros at 1445 GMT in Amsterdam on Friday, while Bank of America shares were up 0.5 percent at .33 on the New York Stock Exchange. RBS was up 0.6 percent at 649-1.2p in London.

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