ABN Amro IPO begins today, priced at €17.75

ABN Amro hits the public market on Friday at 17.75 euros per share, in line with what was expected. Trading starts on Euronext Amsterdam at 9:00 a.m. with the stock symbol of AMS:ABN. The initial batch of shares to be placed on the IPO consists of 188 million certificates - about 20 percent of the bank's stocks, Reuters reports. This means that the bank could bring in around 3.3 billion euros with this batch of shares. If the entire bank were to be sold at this price, the value of ABN Amro would amount to 16.7 billion euros. It will likely take a few years before all the bank's shares are placed on the public market. ABN Amro was nationalized in 2008, when it threatened to fall during the credit crisis. The nationalization cost the State 22 billion euros.