LONDON - The nationalized bank ABN Amro moved a step closer to the public markets on Friday after the Dutch government said it would seek an initial public offering for the bank.
The announcement comes five years after the Dutch government bailed out ABN Amro after a consortium of European banks acquired the bank for around 72.2 billion euros, or $99 billion.
The takeover was one of the worst deals struck at the beginning of the financial crisis, and led to the nationalizations of both ABN Amro and Royal Bank of Scotland, the British bank that led the buying consortium.
After years of restructuring, including 28 billion euros of government funds, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, said on Friday that the bank was now getting reading for an I.P.O.
“We will get as good a price as possible. The chance of selling with a profit is small,†Mr. Rutte told reporters at a press conference, according to Reuters.
Analysts say ABN Amro is currently worth around 15 billion euros, and any listing would depend on greater stability in the European markets.
“ABN Amro is ready to start preparations for an I.P.O.,†the Dutch bank said in a statement on Friday. “At the moment, however, ABN Amro is suffering from the Dutch economic recession.â€
A potential listing is not likely to come before 2015, and is expected to generate a loss on the Dutch taxpayers’ investment in the nationalized bank. That would contrast with the profit that United States taxpayers have earned from their bank bailouts.
The British government is also likely to generate returns from the part nationalization of Lloyds Banking Group, which is currently 39 percent owned by local taxpayers. British authorities are expected to start selling shares in the bank by early next year, and Lloyds’ share price is currently trading above what the government paid for its stake in the firm.
The pending offering for ABN Amro follows a difficult restructuring plan. The bank has suffered from weak domestic growth and a rise in delinquent loans.
On Friday, ABN Amro, which generates more than 80 percent of its revenue from its domestic operations, reported a 3 percent fall, to 817 million euros, in its net income during the first half of the year, as an increase in troubled loans was offset by one-time gains. Without these one-off earnings, ABN Amro said its first half earnings fell 36 percent compared with the same period in 2012.
“We expect loan impairments for 2013 to rise above last year’s level as the economic conditions in the Netherlands are set to remain challenging for the remainder of 2013,†ABN Amro’s chairman, Gerrit Zalm, said in a statement on Friday.
