AMSTERDAM (Bloomberg) — Shares of ABN Amro Holding NV rose to a record after Barclays Plc approached the Dutch bank about a takeover, sparking what may become the biggest contest for a financial-services company.ABN Amro’s stock rose as much 9.8 percent to 29.95 euros in Amsterdam yesterday, valuing the company at 57 billion euros ($76 billion). Barclays, the UK’s third largest bank, said it will make a statement “clarifying the position” before business opens today after a person with knowledge of the situation who declined to be identified said the two companies are in talks.

Chief executive officer Rijkman Groenink is fending off calls from investors, including TCI Fund Management, for ABN Amro to be broken up as he works to cut expenses on last year’s purchase of Italy’s Banca Antonveneta SpA and loan losses in the US, Latin America and Taiwan. The acquisition of ABN Amro would be the world’s biggest financial-services merger.

“The perception is that ABN Amro has been under some pressure for quite some time, so Barclays may not be the only potential predator out there,” said Jeremy Batstone, an equity strategist at Charles Stanley & Co. in London. “We’re really in the first foothills of what could be quite a prolonged process.”

The Sunday Times said yesterday Barclays made an informal approach to ABN Amro. The Wall Street Journal said ABN Amro is resisting overtures from several unidentified suitors. BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale are among banks that have signalled interest in making a bid for ABN Amro, the Journal said today, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

Barclays spokesman Jason Nisse and ABN Amro spokesman Neil Moorhouse declined to comment.

Societe Generale spokeswoman Stephanie Carson-Parker, BNP Paribas spokesman Jonathan Mullen, HSBC Holdings Plc spokesman Richard Lindsay and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc spokeswoman Carolyn McAdam declined to comment. Spokespeople for Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Santander Central Hispano SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA also declined to comment.

Barclays CEO John Varley told analysts a month ago that he wants the London-based bank to grow “aggressively” and would consider purchases to enter emerging markets. Acquiring ABN Amro, which has branches in 53 countries and owns LaSalle Bank in Chicago, would help Barclays to extend retail banking outside the UK and build up its securities, asset- and wealth- management arms, Lambert said.

The bank might offer about 60 billion euros ($80 billion) for Amsterdam-based ABN Amro, the biggest Dutch bank, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd. analyst Jean-Pierre Lambert. Other Anglo-Dutch accords include Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Unilever NV.

ABN Amro shares traded at 29.74 euros as of 3.10 p.m. Dutch time yesterday. Barclays shares rose 0.2 percent to 684 pence in London, giving it a market value of $44.8 billion ($87 billion).

“It makes sense on a strategic and geographical basis,” said Guy de Blonay, a London-based fund manager at New Star Asset Management Group Plc, who helps oversee about $34 billion and holds shares of both companies. He said any bidder may offer at least 35 euros a share. “Barclays is looking for something in Brazil, more in the US and wants to expand in Italy.”

ABN Amro stock rose 7.4 percent in the month through March 16, the best performer in the 72-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index. Barclays shares fell 13 percent in the same period. ABN Amro’s price-to-earnings ratio inched up to 9.7 last week, just ahead of Barclays for the first time in a year.

ABN Amro’s stock has been fuelled by takeover speculation since February 21 when TCI, a U.K. hedge fund that led the ouster of Deutsche Boerse AG’s top executives two years ago, said the bank is “significantly” undervalued. The company relied on asset sales to increase fourth-quarter profit by 4.9 percent to 1.36 billion euros.

“Financial investors are interested because selling off its units individually would be worth more than the whole company,” said Konrad Becker, a banking analyst at Merck Finck & Co. in Munich. “Its weak profitability is making it so vulnerable.”

UBS AG, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. have been retained by ABN Amro as advisers. Deutsche Bank AG is among Barclays’ advisers.

ABN Amro, the product of a 1991 merger of the two biggest Dutch banks, made half of its revenue last year from interest income on loans, a quarter from commissions, and most of the remainder from trading and investment banking.

The company got embroiled last month in a boardroom battle at Rome-based Capitalia SpA, where it is the largest shareholder. CEO Matteo Arpe won the backing of a group of shareholders led by ABN Amro just hours before the directors were scheduled to consider a motion to fire him.

Alice Jentink, a spokeswoman for the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets, and Dutch Central bank spokesman Tobias Oudejans declined to comment yesterday.

Barclays said on February 20 that second-half net income jumped 41 percent to $2.26 billion. Growth was spurred by the Barclays Capital securities unit under president Robert Diamond, 55, which accounted for about one third of pretax profit. The bank makes half of its profit outside the UK.

“Our exposure to emerging markets is still quite low,” Varley, 50, said on a conference call when the bank reported earnings on February 20. “We would like to increase our exposure to them.”

Barclays, which doesn’t have any retail and commercial banking presence in Asia-Pacific except for India, can tap ABN Amro’s markets in India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia. Barclays’ strongest profit growth in the second-half of 2006 came from international retail and commercial banking, where pretax profit increased 59 percent.

ABN Amro’s consumer-banking clients in the region rose by 18 percent to 3.3 million last year and the number of credit cards issued increased by 19 percent to 2.8 million, with India and Greater China driving growth, according to the bank.