Fortis NV shareholders are meeting on Monday in order to decide the fate of a potential bid for ABN Amro, while their competitor Barclays filed its  formal offer for the same Dutch banking giant.

Meetings at Fortis headquarters in Brussels and Utrecht were due to kick off, shareholders being expected to decide whether the banking and insurance company will join a trio completed by Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Santander that aims at taking over ABN.

An ardent battle has been raging between the consortium and Barclays for the past months, the British bank being the first one to get approval from shareholders to formalize its offer.

Inside the consortium, only Spain’s largest bank managed to get the green light from its investors, with Royal Bank’s shareholders are due to meet on August 10.

During Monday’s meeting, Fortis will propose a sale of shares valued at 13 billion euros that would make the offer for ABN more competitive and ensure a potential success.

Three quarters of investors have to give their thumbs-up in order for the bank to have a clear path ahead, otherwise being forced to use “alternative ways” of maintaining its candidacy for the Dutch bank.

Also on Monday, London-based Barclays plc made another step towards an ABN takeover by making public its official offer. It is willing to pay 13,15 euro in cash and 2,13 shares for one ABN share, an offer that would remain standing if at least 80 per cent of investors register their shares by October 4.

“The bid of the others is basically maximized. Our bid with the rise in share price will blow through these numbers,” Frits Seegers, Chief Executive Officer, Global Retail & Commercial Bank said in a previous interview referring to the competition’s offer.