Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503080028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
ING beat out a bid put together by rival Dutch bankers ABN Amro and U.S. investment bank Smith Barney. The deal was announced by court-appointed administrators who had been in control of Barings since last Monday.
ING had earlier made a tentative offer to pay 1 pound ($1.60 U.S.) for Barings - but it would have to assume liabilities stretching into the hundreds of millions.
A source who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said it wasn't certain if those terms were included in the final deal, which will be presented today to a High Court judge in London.
The world's top bankers had been anxiously wondering whether a Barings deal could be completed before Asian financial markets opened today.
Barings may have violated Britain's banking rules when it transferred $1.3 billion to back a Singapore trader's financial gambles in the weeks before the bank's crash, two British newspapers reported Sunday.
There is also growing evidence that Barings knew about trader Nick Leeson's risky dealings, ignored warnings of a possible disaster and may have misled the Bank of England when it asked for help in putting together a rescue package. The Observer newspaper reported American regulators threatened to close Barings' New York brokerage office last year because of serious failures in management. Barings insiders were quoted by the paper as saying that was another example of the bank's lax supervision of its overseas operations.
A report released Saturday by accountants Price Waterhouse in Singapore said Barings transferred $890 million from its London head office in January and February in mandatory up front money to back Leeson's trading.
The Sunday Telegraph said bankers in London insist that $1.3 billion was transferred to Singapore. It quoted financial sources saying the bank sent the money from London to Singapore and opened a special account in the Cayman Islands to cover Leeson's dealings.
by CNB