ABN Amro, the Dutch financial services group, said today it will launch a €6.3bn ($8.2bn) all-cash offer for Banca Antonveneta, the Italian bank where it already owns a 12.7% stake.

The Dutch bank immediately launched a 135 million share sale to raise €2.7bn and said it would also add more debt to pay for the deal. The share issue is led by ABN Amro Rothschild, JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers.