UPDATE 1-Investor PGGM shares TCI concern on ABN's strategy
(Adds details, background)
AMSTERDAM, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Dutch pension fund PGGM, a shareholder in ABN AMRO AAH.AS, said on Wednesday it shared the concern of hedge fund TCI over the bank's strategy but would not say whether it would support a break-up plan.
Britain's TCI Fund Management, which says it owns more than 1 percent of ABN, said in a letter to the bank last week that it should explore options to merge, sell or spin off some of its assets, or even the whole business, as it was undervalued.
"Just as TCI, we are concerned about ABN AMRO's ABN.N strategy where it concerns its clarity," a PGGM spokeswoman told ANP-Reuters. She declined to say how large the pension fund's stake in ABN was.
TCI has asked shareholders in the biggest Dutch bank to vote on its proposals at a shareholder meeting scheduled for Apr. 26.
PGGM declined to say whether it agreed with TCI's proposed solutions nor whether it would vote in favour of the plan as ABN AMRO had not decided if it will put them on the agenda of the shareholders meeting.
"We will only speak out if ABN itself puts them to a vote. We will wait and see what ABN decides," the PGGM spokeswoman said.
An ABN spokesman said the bank was still studying TCI's letter and had not decided whether it would bring its proposals to a vote.
TCI told ANP-Reuters on Tuesday it has support from other ABN shareholders, including pension funds, but it declined to give any names.
Dutch financial services group ING Groep NV (ING.AS)(ING.N) said it controlled 5.5 percent of ABN's voting rights but declined to comment on TCI's proposals.
ABN has said that several hedge funds have bought stakes in the bank recently but it declined to say whether these had the same goal as TCI.
TCI was part of a group of activist investors that torpedoed Deutsche Boerse's (DB1Gn.DE) takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) in 2005, costing the then chief executive of Deutsche Boerse, Werner Seifert, his job.
ABN is no stranger to acquisition rumours, which have circulated since a wave of mega-bank mergers began about five years ago. But an ongoing restructuring, a foray into Italy and the relatively small scale of ABN's U.S. operations have kept many wondering whether the bank might be bought.
