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Weather 
Friday: Cold and sunny everywhere. Heavy frost at night. Similar Saturday but thaw possible Sunday
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Banking group Fortis in crisisSaturday 27 September 2008 Banking regulators are to discuss the situation surrounding troubled Belgian Dutch financial services group Fortis, a spokeswoman for the Belgian regulators told Reuters on Saturday. ‘The parties will discuss scenarios for Fortis in a cooperative way,’ she was quoted as saying but declined to say who would be at the talks. On Friday, Fortis replaced acting CEO Herman Verwilst with banking chief Filip Dierckx. The Financieele Dagblad reports that Fortis managers are working hard to complete the sale of a number of assets this weekend, citing unnamed sources. The FD said the sale of ABN Amro’s Dutch operations could be on the cards. Fortis was one of a consortium of three banks which bought ABN Amro last year. The paper says Fortis hopes to be able to announce ‘one or more transactions’ on Monday to ease fears about its balance sheet. The paper also says that Dutch central bank chief Nout Wellink cancelled a speech in Chicago to fly back to the Netherlands. Solid position On Friday, Fortis issued a statement saying its finances were solid. Over the past nine months, just 3% of retail and private banking customers have switched to a new bank, the bank said. The bank has a base of more than €300bn allowing it to 'fully fund' operations, the statement said. Fortis shares fell for the fifth day in a row in Amsterdam on Friday because of fears about the bank's position. On Thursday, they hit a 14-year low. In June, after assuring investors its finances were healthy, the bank announced an €8bn capital boost programme, including a €1.5b share issue. Shareholder anger led to the resignation of CEO Jean-Paul Votron. © DutchNews.nl
The sandcastle will be no more. Bank of America got the juiciest part, the only part which was worth buying. Santander will do well to expand into South America while RBS should close down some branches in the emerging markets. Both RBS and Santander should now come to recue Fortis by buying of some of the ABN AMRO assets, breaking them into smaller parts and then getting rid of them. Fortis should sell Netherlands retail to ING. Sell Insurance share (49%) to get some cash, Break Private Banking operations geographically and then sell them regionally. Liquidate the rest. By yugtrams | September 28, 2008 5:42 PM
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Its the best time to buy fortis shares.
By Sammy | September 27, 2008 1:16 PM