AMSTERDAM: The Netherlands’ finance minister said he did not expect nationalized bank ABN Amro to return to private hands until the second half of 2015.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem said he would likely send to parliament a letter before the end of March recommending that ABN Amro seek a stock market listing, adding: “It’s too late now for the first half of this year.”
We are going to sell ABN again,” Dijsselbloem said during a public appearance in Amsterdam, reiterating the cabinet’s longstanding intention to seek an initial public offering for the bank.
Dutch authorities nationalized ABN Amro in October 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, in an operation that eventually cost the government 28 billion euros ($30 billion). In February, the bank reported full-year 2014 underlying profit of 1.55 billion euros and year-end equity of 14.9 billion euros.
