Hedge fund TCI is threatening to take ABN Amro to court if it refuses to be open to merging with a bank other than Barclays, a spokesman for the fund told the Financieele Dagblad. ABN Amro and Barclays began exclusive talks last week.

TCI, which earlier urged ABN Amro to split up or sell off units, said it was concerned other parties would not have enough time to prepare an offer, leaving shareholders with just one potential partner to chose from.
ABN Amro told the paper the talks with Barclays were still at a very early stage. ‘We will take the interests of our shareholders into account when making our final decision,’ he said.
Other banks such as BBVA, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, ING, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander have been named as potential buyers.
TCI told the paper it had increased its stake in ABN Amro from 1% to 2%.