Belgian firm KBC Bank investigating ABN Amro takeover: Report
Belgian lender KBC Bank is exploring a possible acquisition of its Dutch competitor, ABN Amro, as part of plans to strengthen its position in Europe, sources close to the deal told Bloomberg. The Brussels-based bank is in the early stages of reviewing the feasibility of a deal, the sources said. They requested anonymity due to the confidential information involved, saying the Belgian bank is still discussing the potential internally and no decision has been made.
“Referring to KBC Group’s earlier and repeated statements about its strategy, we are continuously monitoring the market to identify opportunities that strengthen our strategic goals, and we are committed to pursuing financially sound and sustainable growth,” a bank spokesperson told Bloomberg.
ABN Amro declined to comment, but this is not the first time rumors have circulated about a potential takeover of the bank. BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank have also considered ABN Amro as a potential acquisition target in recent years.
Prior to the publication of the Bloomberg story, shares in ABN Amro were trading on the Euronext Amsterdam stock market with gains of about 75 percent this year alone. That put the bank's market value at around 21.7 billion euros.
Share price surged from 26.02 euros at 5:19 p.m. to 28.27 euros one minute later, according to the Amsterdam exchange's website. ABN Amro stock closed for the day at 26.63 euros after heavy volume trading closed out the last ten minutes of the trading session. The stock price at the start of the year was around 15 euros.
The Dutch government nationalized ABN Amro to save it from collapsing during the 2008 financial crisis, at a cost of about 22 billion euros. The bank was returned to the Amsterdam exchange in 2015, and the Dutch government organization managing the State's ownership, NLFI, has gradually reduced the country's stake in the bank. Two weeks ago, NLFI announced plans to reduce the current holdings from 30.5 percent down to around 20 percent.
When ABN Amro went public in 2015, the sale of 23 percent of share in the bank brought in 3.8 billion euros. By selling off its holdings over time, the Dutch State has earned around 8 billion euros on top of that amount.
