Dutch government to reduce its stake in ABN Amro by a quarter

The Dutch authorities on Tuesday mentioned it should scale back its stake in lender ABN Amro by 1 / 4 to 30% via a buying and selling plan.

Shares of the Dutch financial institution traded 1.2% decrease on the market open and was final down 0.6% as of 9:15 a.m. London time.

The Dutch authorities, which at the moment holds a 40.5% curiosity in ABN Amro, introduced by way of its funding automobile agency NLFI that it’s going to promote shares utilizing a pre-arranged buying and selling plan set to be executed by Barclays Financial institution Eire.

In September, the federal government had mentioned it bought shares price about 1.17 billion euros, bringing its shareholding below 50%. It used a part of the proceeds to repay among the state’s money owed.

ABN Amro was bailed out by the state throughout the 2008 monetary disaster and later privatized in 2015. The federal government began lowering its shareholding within the agency final yr.

The lender got here into state possession “to make sure the steadiness of the monetary system and never as an funding to make a return,” the Finance Minister Eelco Heinen mentioned in a letter to parliament, reiterating earlier statements on the federal government’s intentions.

To be able to recoup what the federal government’s complete expenditure, the whole remaining stake must be bought at a value of 31.49 euros per share, Heinen mentioned in September, including that it’s “not lifelike” that such a value might be achieved within the quick time period.

As of the Monday shut, ABN Amro’s share value was 15.83 euros.

The banking sector has been within the highlight of late, after UniCredit‘s transfer to take a stake in German lender Commerzbank sparked questions on cross-border mergers in Europe and the dearth of an entire banking union within the area.

Governments have been capitalizing on a rebound in shares to promote their shareholdings in banks that have been taken over throughout the monetary disaster. The U.Okay. and German administrations have each made strikes this yr to scale back their respective shareholdings in NatWest and Commerzbank.

ABN Amro was the topic of acquisition hypothesis final yr, when media reviews claimed French financial institution BNP Paribas was within the Dutch lender. On the time, BNP Paribas denied the reviews.