The Dutch government cut its stake in ABN Amro Bank NV to just below 50% through a sale of depositary receipts, ending a five-year hiatus in its disposal of the lender’s shares.
(Bloomberg) — The Dutch government cut its stake in ABN Amro Bank NV to just below 50% through a sale of depositary receipts, ending a five-year hiatus in its disposal of the lender’s shares.
NLFI, the state body that holds the stake in the bank, conducted the sale through a trading plan that was announced in February and executed by Citigroup Global Markets Europe, according to a statement Monday. Before the sale, the government held a stake of 56.3% in the lender, split into 49.9% shares and 6.4% depositary receipts.
The announcement came about a year after Dutch Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag asked NLFI to consider conditions under which the holding can be reduced. The last sale took place in September 2017, when the government sold a 7% stake for about €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion).
The Dutch state stepped in to bail out ABN Amro in the throes of the financial crisis with a €22 billion rescue, transforming it from one of the world’s biggest banks to a consumer-focused lender for the domestic market. ABN Amro returned as a publicly traded company in November 2015, after the government sold a 23% stake in an initial offering.
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