UBS holds 5.3 pct of voting rights in ABN: filing

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - UBS (UBSN.VX) has obtained control of 5.3 percent of voting rights in ABN AMRO AAH.AS, a target of Barclays (BARC.L) and of a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), a regulatory filing showed on Saturday.

ABN shareholders are due to vote on the sale of ABN's U.S. unit LaSalle and other options at an extraordinary meeting, but a date and the range of options have not been released.

Dutch bank ABN has agreed to sell LaSalle to Bank of America (BAC.N), a side transaction that forms part of an agreed $84 billion deal for Britain's Barclays bank to buy ABN. But the consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland opposes the deal as it wants to buy both LaSalle and ABN.

Swiss bank UBS AG and some of its subsidiaries held 3.14 percent of ABN's capital through ordinary shares or options holdings as of May 4, representing 5.3 percent of ABN's voting rights, a filing statement from Dutch market authority AFM said.

A spokesman for UBS confirmed UBS' ABN holdings but could not give details, adding that UBS in general manages many assets for institutional investors, and that any UBS stakes in ABN would be built up independent of UBS' role as an advisor to ABN.

UBS would have supported the LaSalle sale to Bank of America, Dutch press agency ANP reported without citing sources.

ABN AMRO was not immediately available to comment.

RBS and its partners Santander (SAN.MC) and Fortis (FOR.BR) have said they are willing to buy all of ABN for about 71 billion euros ($95.7 billion) and have offered $24.5 billion for LaSalle.

On Monday, ABN rejected the offer for LaSalle from RBS and its partners saying it was not superior to ABN's deal with Bank of America because the RBS offer was conditional on the consortium acquiring all of ABN and carried execution risks.

ABN is caught in a legal struggle over the LaSalle deal after the Dutch enterprise court froze the LaSalle sale last week and ordered a vote on the sale as requested by some shareholders, who called the LaSalle deal a "poison pill" making it difficult for them to consider alternate offers.

Bank of America then sued ABN, and ABN has appealed the court decision.