Dutch Government to Reduce Its Stake in ABN Amro to Below 50%

The Dutch government is cutting its stake in ABN Amro to below 50% through a sale of depositary receipts for shares.

(Bloomberg) — The Dutch government is cutting its stake in ABN Amro to below 50% through a sale of depositary receipts for shares.

NLFI, the state body exercising the shareholder rights in the bank, will conduct the sale through a pre-arranged trading plan that will be executed by Citigroup Global Markets Europe, according to a statement Friday. Rothschild & Co is acting as the sole financial adviser to NLFI.

The Dutch state stepped in to rescue ABN Amro during the financial crisis from 2008, spending almost €22 billion ($23.6 billion) in the process. Under government ownership, ABN Amro transformed itself from one of the world’s largest banks to a consumer lender focused on the Netherlands. ABN Amro returned as a publicly traded company in November 2015, after the government sold a 23% stake in an initial offering.

Last year, Dutch Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag asked NLFI to reconsider conditions under which the state’s holding can be further reduced in the lender. The last such sale took place in September 2017, when the government sold a 7% stake for about €1.5 billion.

Currently the government holds a stake of 56.3% in the lender, split into 49.9% shares and 6.4% depositary receipts. The trading plan will become operational in the coming days and will terminate when the maximum number of depository receipts have been sold, but can be renewed at NLFI’s discretion.

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