The Dutch financial group ING has sold 659m Euros’ worth of shares in Fortis back to the Fortis Group itself. The Fortis group currently runs factoring operations in the Netherlands, France, Germany, England, Italy and Spain.
Fortis had announced earlier in the month that they were planning to implement a programme of repurchasing. The shares repurchased today represents 60% of the target figure specified by Fortis.
The transaction will help ING to fund its proposed expansion in the US and for Fortis it is hoped that the buy-back of shares in its Netherlands-listed arm will act as a funding mechanism for its planned 4.1bn Euro takeover of the Dutch insurer ASR.
This leaves ING retaining a 5% stake in Fortis.
Source: Financial Times
