ABN asset sale seen by mid-September
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch state-controlled bank ABN AMRO is expected to have clinched a deal by mid-September to sell some assets to settle EU competition concerns, the Dutch Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. When Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), Spain's Santander (SAN.MC) and Belgian-Dutch group Fortis OR.BR bought ABN for 70 billion euros in 2007 Fortis agreed to sell some Dutch assets to meet competition concerns and subsequently made a loss-making deal with Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE).
After the Dutch state nationalised the Dutch operations of ABN AMRO and Fortis last October the Dutch central bank blocked the Deutsche Bank sale but ABN said it would still seek to settle the competition issue.
"We have now set a time path that by mid-August there should be more clarity," a spokeswoman for the Dutch Finance Ministry said on Tuesday, adding that a deal was expected to be concluded by the middle of September.
A previous deadline to strike a deal expired on Monday.
ABN was negotiating with an interested party and the European Commission about selling some assets and ABN would probably need extra capital when a deal was struck, complicating the selling process, Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said two weeks ago.
The spokeswoman declined to say if the current interested party was Deutsche Bank or a different bank.
Credit Suisse has been appointed as a divesture trustee, Bos had said.
(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
