9 August 2007
AMSTERDAM (AP) – Fortis NV reported a 17 percent increase in net profit for the second quarter on Thursday, due mostly to a strong performance in the company’s banking division.
Net profit at the Belgian-Dutch company was EUR 1.62 billion, up from EUR 1.39 billion a year earlier.
Banking profits were EUR 1.16 billion, up 14 percent from EUR 1.02 billion, mostly due to capital gains on investments, while insurance profits rose 8.4 percent to EUR 413 million from EUR 381 million, mostly due to better earnings from life insurance.
Taxes fell by 25 percent to EUR 265 million from EUR 354 million thanks to the Netherlands’ lowering its corporate tax rate.
Shares Thursday fell 0.5 percent to EUR 28.23 in Amsterdam.
Fortis on Monday won approval from its shareholders to issue EUR 13 billion worth of new shares to help finance its share – EUR 24 billion – of a EUR 70.8 billion bid to buy ABN AMRO Holding NV as part of a consortium attempting the largest takeover in the history of the financial industry.
Fortis’s three-bank consortium, led by Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, must win approval from regulators and fend off a rival bid from Barclays PLC to win ABN AMRO.
“However, Fortis will not be distracted from its long-term goals” in the meanwhile, Chief Executive Jean-Paul Votron said in a statement.
[Copyright AP 2007]
Subject: Dutch news, Belgian news