The Netherlands continues to reduce its stake in ABN AMRO and is again participating in the buyback of the bank's shares to prevent a stake increase in the meantime. NLFI reported this in brief on Wednesday.
ABN AMRO Bank announced a €500 million share buyback program on Wednesday during its annual results.
“In the context of the buyback programme, NLFI will sell a number of shares to ABN AMRO equivalent to 40 percent of the total value of the buyback programme,” the management office said.
This means that the Netherlands will sell €200 million worth of shares to the bank. “Otherwise our interest will increase significantly again,” an NLFI spokesperson told ABM Financial News on Wednesday.
The Dutch state is now in the process of gradually reducing its share from 49.5% to about 40%, and it began doing so last fall. This “evasiveness” will continue, and will likely last longer than share buybacks, the spokesman said.
For practical reasons, NLFI participates 40% in share buybacks, although the current share is slightly higher. This “largely” offsets the unwanted increase in stake due to share buybacks, the spokesman said.
Update: To add NLFI response.
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