Fortis share value seen at 3.5 to 4 euros: analysts

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Shares of the remains of troubled financial group Fortis (FOR.BR) are worth 3.5 to 4.0 euros after north European governments and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) carved up the business and are expected to trade at a significant discount, analysts said on Monday.

Fortis shares (FOR.AS), which closed at 5.422 euros on Friday in Brussels, were suspended on Euronext exchanges on Monday. Belgian markets regulator CBFA said the suspension could last all day.

JP Morgan assessed the fair value of Fortis shares at 3.8 euros, adding it expected them to trade at a "meaningful" discount to that level.

Dresdner Kleinwort, putting the value at 4 euros, said it had downgraded its recommendation back to Reduce from Hold, with a target price of 3.5 euros.

The Dutch state nationalized all of Fortis's operations in the Netherlands, including its part of ABN AMRO, while BNP Paribas took a 75 percent stake in Fortis Bank Belgium and the whole of Fortis's insurance activities in Belgium.

It also took a 66 percent stake in Fortis Bank Luxembourg. The Belgian state and Luxembourg would hold 25 and 33 percent respectively in the banks in their countries.

What remains of Fortis is its international insurance business, a 66 percent stake of a vehicle holding 10.4 billion euros of structured products and cash from the various asset sales.

"This is clearly an unattractive mix and therefore we would expect a big holding company discount," JP Morgan wrote.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by David Cowell)