Exit policy state participation

The Dutch State will considerably bring down its participation in the financial sector over the next five years. Minister De Jager writes this in a letter sent to the Lower House today.

A secondary offering of shares is the prime option for both ABN AMRO and ASR Nederland. Other sales methods are however not ruled out.

The government keeps all its strategic and financial options open for the divestment of the two state participations. Once a number of preconditions have been met, the State will start proceedings to return the participations to the private sector.

One of the prerequisites is that the financial sector is stable and the market is ready for the projected transactions. The companies involved must also be ready for the projected sales method or its implementation. The State's objective is to recover as much of the overall investment as possible.

The State is confident that ABN AMRO will be able to increase its profitability strongly over the next few years. If the bank succeeds in its ambitions, the actual exit preparations may commence by 2013, in which case the exit is not expected to be completed until 2014.

If the State opts for a secondary offering it will continue to be a shareholder for some time to come. Privatisations of this scale are usually implemented in phases.

ASR Nederland is hard at work to prepare itself for the privatisation. Once ASR Nederland is ready and the market climate is favourable, the company may be returned to private hands. The insurer would also prefer a secondary offering.

At AEGON, ING and SNS REAAL, the initiative of buying or converting securities will lie with the companies themselves.