THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The first chunk of nationalized bank ABN Amro has been re-privatized, with around 20 per cent of its stock beginning trading on the Amsterdam stock exchange at an initial price of 17.75 euros ($18.97).
When the exchange opened, the price immediately rose to 18.18 euros ($19.44). Chairman of the bank’s managing board, Gerrit Zalm, calls it, “a good start.”
Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in a letter to lawmakers that the shares re-floated Friday have a total value of around 3.3 billion euros ($3.5 billion).
The Dutch state spent 21.7 billion euros to nationalize the bank in 2008 together with the Dutch operations of Belgium’s now-defunct Fortis NV, which was part of a consortium trying to take over ABN Amro.
