The eventual sale of merged bank ABN Amro/Fortis, which has had at least €30bn in government investment, may well make a loss, CEO Gerrit Zalm admitted to BNR radio on Friday.

‘It will be difficult to get that amount for it,’ Zalm said in an interview.
This is the first time Zalm has admitted that the government may lose money on the deal. A number of economists, and ANM Amro’s former CEO Rijkman Groenink, have already warned against too-high expectations.
The bank is expected to be sold of in a couple of years time, at the earliest.

Valuation
Two weeks ago it emerged ABN Amro is valued at €9.3bn in the finance ministry’s books. But this is a ‘technical valuation’ based on the bank’s assets, not its actual sale value, acting finance minister Jan Kees de Jager said at the time.
‘We will definitely get that €9.3bn,’ Zalm said. ‘We will try to beat that and head towards €25bn.’
MPs have called on De Jager to explain why Zalm thinks the bank will not earn back its investment.