Fortis shareholders approve deal with BNP Paribas

NETHERLANDS: Shareholders in Fortis Holding gave their final approval on Wednesday for the takeover of the group's former Belgian banking unit Fortis Bank by French lender BNP Paribas.

Shareholders in the holding company who had gathered here voted 77 per cent in favour of the deal, which had generated deep controversy among some small investors. Some at Wednesday's meeting threatened to fight the sale further in court.

Shareholders at a similar session in the northern Belgian city of Ghent on Tuesday also backed BNP's plans to buy Fortis's former Belgian banking arm.

Meetings were held The Netherlands and Belgium because Fortis Holding used to be a financial powerhouse in both countries where its shares were widely held.

The BNP Paribas takeover would create the biggest banking group in the eurozone in terms of deposits and is expected to cost the French bank 10.4 billion euros (13.8 billion dollars).

The votes were the latest chapter in a months-long topsy-turvy saga that has seen the group brought to the brink of collapse and broken up by the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg governments.

Amid the fallout from the collapse of US investment giant Lehman Brothers in September, the Dutch government nationalised Fortis Holding's Dutch bank-assurance activities and Belgium took over Fortis Bank while proposing to sell a 75 per cent stake to BNP Paribas.

Many shareholders in Fortis, which was once one of the bluest of Benelux blue chips, have seen their investments all but wiped out since the group was carved up, depriving the parent company of its main assets.