The Dutch government hopes to get up to €15 billion from the privatization ABN Amro, from an investment of €21.7 billion of the state, resulting in a possible loss of €6.7 billion for taxpayers. The Bank will have a period of about a year to prepare for privatization, said in a statement the Dutch Minister of Finance, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, according to Bloomberg. The Dutch government will then assess whether the conditions for sale are met and could proceed with the privatization in three installments, he added.
ABN Amro in 2008 included the banking and insurance operations of Fortis Bank in the Netherlands, took over by the Dutch government for €16.8 billion.
Dijsselbloem said the state has invested €21.7 billion so far in ABN Amro. Selling the bank with a significant loss of €6.7 billion euros will be a delicate political matter in the Netherlands, where the population is already unhappy with tax increases and austerity measures. ABN Amro Chairman Gerrit Zalm said the listing will be most likely planned for the first half of 2015.
Western European governments which were forced to bail out the banks with public money during the crisis, becoming shareholders, are considering privatization options for their holdings at credit institutions. Britain is preparing to reduce its stake of over 41% at Lloyds Banking Group, while the privatization of Royal Bank of Scotland, where the state owns more than 80% of the shares, is still a distant prospect.
In the Netherlands, the financial industry assets exceed 4 times the GDP, despite the decline following the crisis of recent years. The Netherlands supported financial companies over with €95 billion since 2008, a sum that includes state guarantees and capital injections. In February this year, the government has invested €3.7 billion and nationalized SNS Reaal, the fourth largest bank in the country, on the verge of collapse due to losses arising from loans and real estate investments.
A parliamentary committee concluded last year that the price paid by the government to stabilize the financial system after the collapse of Fortis was too high and not justified by the economic value created.
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