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UPDATE 1-Fortis to book 950 mln euro gain on CaiFor sale

Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:46am EST

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(Adds detail, background)

AMSTERDAM, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Dutch-Belgian financial services group Fortis (FOR.AS)(FOR.BR) said on Tuesday it will book a gain of 950 million euros ($1.4 billion) on the sale of its stake in Spanish joint venture CaiFor to unlisted la Caixa.

Fortis said in a statement the gain will be booked in the fourth quarter and its chief financial officer, Gilbert Mittler, said the sale's timing fitted well with Fortis's acquisition of ABN AMRO's Dutch operations.

Fortis, together with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Spanish Santander (SAN.MC) bought Dutch bank ABN AMRO AAH.AS last month in a deal worth about 70 billion euros.

The gain on the sale of CaiFor was more than the 800 million euros that Fortis said it expected to book in a conference call last week with Mittler after it reported quarterly results.

Fortis is paying about 24.5 billion euros for ABN's Dutch operations and its wealth- and asset-management operations, and last month completed a 13.4 billion euros rights issue as part of its financing of the deal.

The bank and insurer closed a 10 billion-euro credit facility last month to raise cash by selling assets or issue bonds. Fortis would make a second convertible debt issue at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, after issuing 2 billion euros in July, Mittler said in September.

(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger; Editing by Quentin Bryar)

((gilbert.kreijger@reuters.com; +31 20 504 5007; Reuters Messaging: gilbert.kreijger.reuters.com@reuters.net))

($1=.6852 Euro) Keywords: FORTIS CAIFOR/

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