ABN investor TCI welcomes block of LaSalle sale

LONDON (Reuters) - British activist hedge fund TCI said it welcomed a Dutch court ruling on Thursday that ABN AMRO must freeze its $21 billion (10.5 billion pound) sale of U.S. unit LaSalle to Bank of America.

TCI, which helped trigger ABN's takeover talks by putting pressure on its management, said the decision was "an essential step in rectifying a flawed sales process and is consistent with what shareholders voted for at last week's AGM".

It repeated its call for Arthur Martinez, chairman of ABN's supervisory board, to assume full control of the sale process, rather than ABN chief executive Rijkman Groenink.