Fortis shareholders to sue company bosses in Dutch court

THE HAGUE: Dismantled and partly privatised banking group Fortis announced on Friday it would hold two general shareholders' meetings, one in the Netherlands on December 1 and another in Belgium the day after.

"A shareholders' circular will be made publicly available prior to the meetings," in the Dutch city of Utrecht and in Brussels, the company announced.

Hard hit by the global financial crisis, Fortis was dismantled earlier this month, with its Dutch assets nationalised by the Netherlands government for 16.8 billion euros, and its Belgian and Luxembourg activities sold to French bank BNP Paribas.

"Confronted with a systemic financial crisis in 2008, Fortis has undergone a complete metamorphosis," said the Fortis statement.

"Fortis holding will henceforth include the international insurance activities, a 66-percent stake in a structured credit portfolio entity and financial assets and liabilities of the different financing vehicles.

"As of 30 June 2008, Fortis Insurance International had a total equity of 1.6 billion euros and funds under management within consolidated companies in the Life business of 21 billion euros."