The management of financial services group Fortis failed to react properly to difficult market conditions and did not keep investors up-to-date when selling shares in 2007, Amsterdam’s company court said on Thursday.

The verdict is another victory for investors who lost money when Fortis collapsed. On February 15, a court in Utrecht also ruled Fortis and its former executives Jean-Paul Votron and Gilbert Mittler misled investors and are liable for damages.
‘We are very happy with this ruling, it’s a big support in our legal proceedings about the misleading of investors,’ Jan Maarten Slagter, chairman of the investors’ association VEB, told news agency Bloomberg. ‘The current Ageas management should now make the former Fortis executives liable for mismanagement; we can’t do that.’
According to their 2008 termination packages, Ageas – the new name for Fortis – will cover any damages its former top executives are found liable for, Bloomberg said.
The disintegration of the Dutch-Belgian banking group followed its role in the €72bn takeover of ABN Amro in 2007.
Earlier stories
Fortis misled investors as early as 2007, court rules
Fortis did mislead investors over solvency rules