About Thomson ReutersABN sits separate, but Fortis spillover possible
Sept 26 (Reuters) - ABN AMRO's core Dutch banking business was bought last year by Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) but is still sitting as a separate operation in a holding company and will stay there for many months to come.
Fortis is not due to get control of the business until around the third quarter of 2009, once the regulatory process concludes.
Fortis (FOR.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was forced to on Friday to deny it had liquidity problems, moving to speed up the sale of assets to boost its balance sheet as worries about its finances sent its shares skidding close to record lows.
Concerns about Fortis should have no impact on ABN's business, but there has been a spillover, ABN said.
Jan-Peter Schmittmann, chairman of ABN's management board, said ABN had lost customers due to the problems at Fortis, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Friday.
Schmittmann did not say how many customers had left, but he said the exodus reflected "doubts about Fortis' liquidity and solvency" among customers. This was irrelevant as ABN's finances were underpinned by profits it made on the sale of its U.S. and Italian businesses, De Telegraaf said.
ABN's core Dutch bank still sits in RFS Holdings, the takeover vehicle used by a consortium that also included Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Spain's Santander (SAN.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to buy the bank last October for a record 70 billion euros.
Fortis has agreed to sell part of ABN to Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for 709 million euros to meet competition demands. The Dutch Central Bank (DnB) and EU Commission have yet to approve the deal.
(Reporting by Steve Slater; editing by John Stonestreet)