Fortis Q1 falls on writedowns despite ABN gain

AMSTERDAM, May 13 (Reuters) - Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis (FOR.BR) said on Tuesday its quarterly net profit fell 31 percent, hurt by impairments on continued turmoil in financial markets that offset gains from its ABN acquisition.

First quarter net profit, which includes for the first time the ABN AMRO operations that Fortis acquired last year, fell to 808 million euros ($1.25 billion), compared with 1.17 billion euros a year earlier.

The average net profit forecast of seven analysts polled by Reuters was 1.09 billion euros.

ABN contributed 319 million euros to banking profit, while Fortis also took a charge of 380 million euros from its subprime, structured credit and related investments in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Reed Stevenson)

((reed.stevenson@thomsonreuters.com; +31 20 504 5002; Reuters Messaging: reed.stevenson.reuters.com@reuters.net))

($1=.6470 Euro) Keywords: FORTIS/

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