The Dutch government plans to sell shares worth about €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in ABN Amro Bank NV as it continues to retreat from a holding acquired during the financial crisis over a decade ago.
The state will lower its stake to about 40%, from the current 49.5% through a trading plan in the coming days, its investment vehicle NLFI said in a statement on Thursday. The plan will be managed by BofA Securities while Rothschild & Co is acting as the sole financial adviser to NLFI.
The 9.5% stake is worth about €1 billion at current market prices, according to Bloomberg calculations. ABN Amro Bank’s shares slipped as much as 2.6% at 9:51 a.m. in Amsterdam.
The stake sale is the next step in the Dutch government’s plan to wind down its holdings in the lender. The government bailed out ABN Amro Bank at the height of the financial crisis and then contributed to its transformation from a global bank to a consumer-focused lender for the local market.
In 2015, ABN Amro Bank was re-listed on the stock exchange, after which the government said it would gradually reduce its stake. Its holding fell below 50% in September.
That Dutch government’s decision to rescue the bank during the crisis ultimately set its coffers back by an estimated €6.7 billion, Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag said last month in a letter to parliament. The value of the state’s stake was insufficient to recoup the total investments it had made thus far and it is “not realistic” to wait for ABN Amro’s share price to hit the level which would enable the government to sell the stock without incurring a loss, she said in the letter.
The decision to start a trading plan doesn’t prevent the NLFI from carrying out other transactions to cut its interest in the lender, the body said in the statement Thursday. It also kept open the possibility of other sales options, including accelerated private placements and participation in targeted buybacks.
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