THE HAGUE, April 27: Dutch shareholders have launched legal action against bank ABN Amro, at the centre of a massive European takeover battle, to stop the bank selling its US subsidiary LaSalle, an Amsterdam court said on Friday.

The Dutch shareholder’s association VEB is demanding that shareholders be allowed to vote on the proposed sale of LaSalle, a key asset in the takeover battle.

The business chamber of the Amsterdam court of appeal will hold a public hearing on the claim on Saturday which could lead to a full blown court case.

On Monday ABN Amro and British bank Barclays announced that they had agreed to a takeover and announced the sale of its US bank LaSalle to Bank of America for $21 billion as part of the deal.

On Wednesday a consortium of three banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland proposed a rival bid pitched at 39 euros per share -- compared with Barclays’ offer of 36.25 euros -- and was dependent on ABN's US subsidiary LaSalle not being sold.

ABN Amro held a shareholders meeting Thursday but there was no vote on the sale of LaSalle or on the takeover bids by the rival banks.—AFP