Fortis details sale of some ABN Dutch ops

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis (FOR.AS: Quote, Profile, Research)(FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research) detailed on Thursday plans to sell some Dutch ABN AMRO operations to deal with antitrust concerns after the takeover of the banking group.

Fortis agreed the disposal plan with the European Commission after buying ABN AMRO AAH.AS along with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Spain's Santander (SAN.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) for 70 billion euros ($109.4 billion) in October.

In a statement on Thursday, Fortis detailed which commercial advisory branches and corporate client units it would sell and said it would unload factoring portfolio IFN Finance BV. It also reiterated sale plans for commercial bank Hollandsche Bank Unie.

Fortis, which paid about 24 billion euros for ABN's Dutch business as well as its wealth and asset management operations, did not give details about possible proceeds or buyers. Fortis has already raised 23 billion euros in funds for the ABN deal.

A Fortis spokeswoman said the details would give potential buyers more information and ease due diligence for the operations. She said the sale should be completed by the summer.

Fortis plans to sell the businesses as a whole as the Commission wanted a strong player to enter the Dutch commercial market, although the factoring unit could be sold separately, she said.

The proposed operations to be sold represent about 10 percent of the total Dutch commercial banking market in terms of assets and income, Fortis said.

RBS has bought ABN's wholesale and investment banking unit and its Asian operations, while Santander acquired ABN's Italian and Brazilian operations.

Fortis shares were down 2 percent at 16.27 euros, in line with a 1.9 percent fall of the DJ Stoxx European banks index and similar to the level just before Fortis released its statement.

(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger; Editing by David Holmes, Paul Bolding)