Fortis Gets $16.4 Billion Rescue

Updated from Sunday, Sept. 28

The next big bank rescue will happen on the other side of the Atlantic.

The governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands agreed Sunday to inject 11.2 billion euros ($16.37 billion) into Fortis NV, the troubled Dutch-Belgian bank.

Government officials and Fortis management had been looking for a buyer or buyers but were unsuccessful, the Wall Street Journal reported said, citing people familiar with the situation. Potential buyers had included ING Groep NV(ING) of the Netherlands and French bank BNP Paribas SA, the Journal added.

Fortis operates insurance and banking businesses in the Benelux region of Europe, which encompasses Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Fortis said Monday it will sell most of the ABN Amro Holding assets it acquired for 24 billion euros last year as part of a consortium that included the U.K.'s Royal Bank of Scotland(RBS) and Spain's Banco Santander(STD). In total, the consortium paid about 73 billion euros for ABN Amro on the top of the market.

Shares of Fortis, which trade in Europe, plunged Friday as investors grew concerned about Fortis' chances for survival. The stock has fallen dramatically this year over concerns about the company's acquisition of ABN Amro and its exposure to the current credit crisis, the Journal noted in a report Saturday.

Also Friday, Fortis ousted its interim CEO, Herman Verwilst, and replaced him with Filip Dierckx, who had been in charge of the company's banking division.

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