Barclays says past M&A mistakes to help ABN bid

LONDON (Reuters) - British bank Barclays (BARC.L) said on Monday it had learnt lessons from its much criticized integration of mortgage bank Woolwich and would apply them to its planned takeover of Dutch bank ABN AMRO AAH.AS.

John Varley, Barclays chief executive, said his planned 63 billion euro ($85.3 billion) takeover of ABN would accelerate Barclays' strategy and allow it to grow earnings faster than if it were on its own.

"What the merger would facilitate is the rapid acceleration of our strategic development, saving us some three to five years in our strategy to create the best alignment between the composition of the enlarged Barclays and the sources of growth in the global financial services industry," Varley said.

He said he would remain financially disciplined in the face of a possible counteroffer from a rival group.

"M&A has to be subject to stringent financial disciplines ... and we are applying them to the ABN AMRO opportunity," Varley said on an audio webcast of a speech at a UBS banking conference in New York.

Varley said the 5.3 billion pound purchase of Woolwich seven years ago was a good strategic move but Barclays did not manage the integration well and did not create the returns on capital it should have done in the early years after the deal.

A consortium led by Royal Bank Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) is attempting to gatecrash Barclays' agreed deal for ABN and has emphasized its success at integrating acquisitions and said its proposed ABN deal would carry less execution risk. For details click on nL14534591.

Varley said Barclays focused too much on synergies and not enough on Woolwich's business performance.

It had applied lessons learnt to its subsequent acquisitions of Zaragozano in Spain in 2003 for 1.1 billion euros and a majority stake in South Africa's ABSA for $5.5 billion.