LONDON (AFP) -- A European consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland on Wednesday declared victory in the takeover battle for Dutch group ABN Amro, sealing the biggest takeover in banking history.

The bid by the consortium, which also comprises Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and Spain's Banco Santander, valued the Dutch lender at about 100 billion dollars (71 billion euros).
RBS and its partners had effectively won the battle last week when rival bidder Barclays pulled out.
The RBS-led grouping declared its offer as ""wholly unconditional"" in a statement on Wednesday, meaning all of its takeover conditions had been met.
The consortium repeated that shareholders representing about 86 percent of ABN stock had accepted the bid. It reported the same level of support on Monday but did not say that all its conditions had been met.
In contrast, British bank Barclays pulled the plug last week on its rival bid worth around 63 billion euros after securing less than 1.0 percent of ABN Amro shares.
In recent weeks, analysts had predicted a crushing win for the RBS-led takeover bid because it was higher and mainly in cash, compared with the Barclays offer that was mostly in shares.
The new announcement will likely herald the breakup of ABN Amro, which dates back to 1824 and was once regarded as one of the jewels in the crown of the Dutch economy.
The consortium takeover is also expected to involve the loss of up to 19,000 jobs at ABN Amro.