Investor group VEB says ABN CEO should go

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch investor group VEB, which won an injunction on Thursday to halt the $21 billion (10.5 billion pound) sale of its LaSalle bank to Bank of America, said that ABN Chief Executive Rijkman Groenink should no longer lead the bank.

"Groenink is not the person who should lead this process or be CEO of the bank," said Peter Paul de Vries, Chairman of the VEB, which he said has the support of up to 20 pct of outstanding shareholders.

A Dutch court ruled on Thursday that ABN AMRO must freeze its LaSalle sale, opening up the possibility of a rival bid for the Netherlands' biggest bank to that offered by British bank Barclays for 63.26 billion euros ($86 billion) for

ABN.

A consortium of three banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland is willing to pay more as long as LaSalle remains part of ABN.

De Vries argued that the LaSalle deal blocked the consortium from making a bid and for shareholders to consider a higher offer for ABN.