The Foundation for the Administration of Financial Institutions wants to “sell certificates of deposit through a pre-established trading plan”, reducing the Dutch government’s share to around 30%.
The Dutch government announced on Tuesday its intention to reduce its stake in ABN Amro to around 30%, 16 years after the nationalization of the country’s third largest bank during the 2008 financial crisis.
The Foundation for the Administration of Financial Institutions (NLFI), manager of the financial interests of the Dutch state wishes to “sell certificates of deposit in ABN Amro through a pre-established trading plan”, declared the bank based in Amsterdam.
The NLFI aims to reduce its stake in ABN Amro from 40.5% to around 30%, it said in a statement.
This announcement comes in a context of growing speculation, while bank mergers and takeovers are increasing in the European banking sector.
However, the NLFI denied that this gradual reduction in state participation would make the banking group more vulnerable prey to potential buyers.
A protective structure was in fact put in place in 2015, giving the foundation the possibility of temporarily revoking the voting rights of shareholders in the event of a hostile takeover bid.
“The protection structure makes it more difficult to take control of ABN Amro,” Bas van der Waals, spokesperson for the NLFI, told AFP.
UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, surprised investors last month by increasing its stake in German rival Commerzbank to about 21 percent, fueling speculation it was preparing to launch a takeover bid.
The Netherlands nationalized ABN Amro as part of a multibillion-euro bailout in 2008.
The group subsequently returned to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 2015, then one of the largest IPOs of a European bank.
The Dutch government has since sold its stake in the bank, aiming to recoup some of the bailout costs.
In November last year, the Dutch state announced its aim to reduce its stake in ABN Amro from 49.5% to 40.5%, with the latest round of sales completing last month and bringing in $1 .17 billion euros.
However, Finance Minister Eelco Heinen said on September 11 that, to recover costs, ABN Amro’s share would have to be sold at 31.49 euros. It was then trading at 15.17 euros.
ABN Amro shares were trading even lower, at 15.57 euros, at the start of the afternoon on the Amsterdam stock exchange.
