Banking turmoil spread to the heart of Europe today as Fortis, the Belgian-Dutch banking group, was forced to deny speculation that it was about to go out of business after announcing an acceleration of asset sales.
With its shares tumbling for the fifth day in a row and the Dutch central bank reportedly seeking to shore up its financial base, Fortis announced plans to offload assets worth up to €10 billion (£7.9 billion).
The bank joined forces with Royal Bank of Scotland to buy ABN Amro last year.
As investors continued to panic, Herman Verwilst, the group's interim chief executive, hastily convened a press conference in a bid to reassure the markets that the bank was not set to follow Lehman Brothers.
more ...
------------------------
Check out the rest of this blog here.
Friday 26 September 2008
blog comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
