Fortis Wins Backing for ABN Consortium Takeover

Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis on Monday cleared the way for its plan to buy parts of rival ABN Amro, as its shareholders in Belgium and the Netherlands gave their approval.

Fortis won support from 96.12% of Dutch shareholders to buy the Dutch operations of ABN Amro at its meeting in Utrecht and 96.01% of shareholders supported the 13 billion euros ($18 billion) shares issue to finance it.

Fortis already got overwhelming support from shareholders during a meeting in Brussels earlier on Monday, where more than 90% of shareholders voted for both proposals.

Fortis is holding the shareholder meetings to secure backing for its part of a 71 billion euro joint bid for ABN Amro with Royal Bank of Scotland and Spain's Santander.