Dutch gov't to sell more ABN Amro shares, reducing stake to around 20%

The Dutch government intends to further reduce its stake in ABN Amro to approximately 20 percent, the Foundation for the Administration of Financial Institutions (NLFI) announced. The government currently holds a 30.5 percent stake in the bank. It plans to sell share certificates until the stake is around 20 percent.

The government nationalized ABN Amro during the 2008 credit crisis to save the bank from collapse. It returned the bank to the stock exchange in 2015, slowly selling shares and reducing the government’s stake. This is the fourth trading plan in ABN Amro shares.

This round will start in the coming days and will be executed by the Swiss bank UBS. In the third round of share sales, which ended in July, the government reduced its stake from 40.5 to 30.5 percent, generating almost €1.6 billion for the government.

The sale round will end when the maximum number of certificates has been sold, said the NLFI, the foundation that manages the government’s holdings in financial institutions. The NLFI will regularly assess the trading plan’s progress and may decide to pause, terminate, or extend the sale round.

ABN Amro’s share price has risen sharply on the Amsterdam stock exchange this year, according to ANP. On Monday, the bank closed at €25.47, compared to around €15 per share at the beginning of the year.