Dutch State reduces stake in ABN Amro to around 30%

The Dutch government has reduced its stake in ABN Amro to less than a third. Both parties announced this on Tuesday. In October last year, the Foundation for the Administration Office Management of Financial Institutions (NLFI) already announced that it wanted to reduce its stake in the bank from 40.5 percent to around 30 percent.

ABM Amro was nationalized by the government during the credit crisis of 2008 to save the bank from collapse. The bank returned to the stock exchange in 2015. However, not all shares were immediately offered. In recent years, the Dutch State has gradually reduced its stake in the bank.

Now that the State’s stake has fallen to less than a third, a number of rights of NLFI, the foundation that manages the government’s financial institutions, will lapse. This means, among other things, that NLFI no longer has the right to prior approval for the issue or acquisition of shares in the bank. The bank also no longer has to inform NLFI about investments of 50 million euros or more.