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ABN, Fortis merger in Netherlands scrapped -report

Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:27am EST

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AMSTERDAM, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The banking merger between the Dutch operations of Fortis (FOR.BR) and ABN AMRO will no longer take place, the Dutch Finance Ministry has decided, a Dutch newspaper reported on Friday.

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The Dutch state decided to buy Fortis's Dutch businesses, which includes Dutch bank ABN AMRO that it took over a year ago, for 16.8 billion euros ($21 billion) in early October after it lost the confidence of investors and depositors.

Fortis had taken over ABN -- the Netherlands' biggest bank -- with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Santander (SAN.MC) for 70 billion euros and had planned to integrate ABN's Dutch retail banking network with its own operation.

But Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos has decided that the integration, which was slated to take place in 2009, will not happen, Dutch daily Volkskrant reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.

The Finance Ministry declined to comment on the report, but said that discussions would take place on Friday concerning the integration of Fortis's Dutch business and ABN AMRO.

The Dutch central bank, which led the nationalisation of Fortis's Dutch business and ABN, has already put on hold Fortis (FOR.BR) planned sale of 709 million euros worth of ABN AMRO assets to Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) in order to comply with European antitrust demands. (Reporting by Reed Stevenson; editing by John Stonestreet)

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