Fortis dips on report of tough ABN asset sale

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Shares in Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis (FOR.BR) dipped on Monday, in contrast to gains at Europe's other major banks, on a weekend report that it is having trouble selling parts of the ABN AMRO business it acquired last year.

Shares in Fortis, which is seeking buyers for some of ABN's Dutch unit to comply with antitrust concerns, fell 0.8 percent to 13.79 euros while the DJ Stoxx European banking index was up 0.7 percent at 0930 GMT.

Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) is the only party interested in buying ABN's Dutch commercial advisory and corporate client units but has placed "ridiculous conditions", Dutch daily Telegraaf reported.

A Fortis spokeswoman declined to comment, and pointed to previous remarks by executives that the sale would be completed by the end of this year.

Fortis acquired ABN's Dutch operations, private banking and asset managements businesses after buying the Netherlands biggest bank in a consortium with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Santander (SAN.MC) last year for 70 billion euros (55.1 billion pounds).

Fortis agreed to dispose of parts of ABN's business to comply with the European Commission's antitrust concerns. BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) and Deutsche Bank have been cited as potential buyers for part or all of the businesses.

The Telegraaf reported, citing an unnamed source, that Fortis may not be able to meet its own July 1 deadline for the sale and may face financing pressures later this year.

"If the demands of the buyer are really unrealistic Fortis could try to ask the European Commission for an extension of the selling period," Rabo Securities analyst Cor Kluis said, noting that Fortis had indicated it could get 900 million to 1 billion euros for the businesses.

A price one-third lower than indicated could result in a 0.1 percentage point decline in Fortis' core Tier 1 ratio, Kluis said.