By Antonia van de Velde
BRUSSELS, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Fortis Holding has reopened talks with the Belgian government and BNP Paribas over the sale of Fortis assets, on the recommendation of a court-appointed panel of experts.
'The experts recommend that several significant elements of the agreements made on 3, 5 and 6 October 2008 be renegotiated. Fortis Holding confirms that it has started negotiations with the Belgian government and BNP Paribas in this respect,' Fortis said in a statement on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy said the talks were being held with a special government-appointed committee and not at the cabinet level.
Fortis shares were up 10.14 percent to 1.55 euros at 0922 GMT, against a 5.07 percent rise for the DJ Stoxx banking index .
The deals the Fortis board agreed to in October, following an 11.2 billion euro ($14.8 billion) cash injection the week prior, were frozen by a Brussels appeals court in December, prompting the collapse of the Belgian government.
The court ordered that shareholders be allowed to vote on the deals at a meeting on Feb. 11 and appointed a five-person expert panel to produce a preliminary report before the meeting.
The negotiators face a probable deadline of Feb. 4, when proxy votes for the shareholders' meeting must be handed in.
A spokeswoman for Fortis Holding declined to comment on whether the shareholders could vote on a renegotiated deal, rather than on the initial agreements.
The experts said on Tuesday that they largely backed the October plan to carve up Fortis between the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments, with BNP Paribas buying the Belgian operations.
They also said BNP Paribas's purchase of Fortis assets was the 'most reasonable and most suitable' outcome of the much-disputed splitting of the group.
However, they recommended renegotiating the deal to return part of Fortis Bank, currently owned by the Belgian government, to Fortis Holding in return for shares.
They also suggested Fortis Holding should retain a stake in Fortis' Belgian insurance business, rather than sell the entire business to BNP Paribas as initially planned.
Under a renegotiated deal, BNP Paribas might also get a larger stake in a structured credit portfolio than the 10 percent initially planned.
It could also renegotiate the so-called CASHES component of deal, which refers to perpetual loans on Fortis's books that were convertible to shares.
Under the original deal, Fortis took a hit of 2.35 billion euros, while BNP was able to keep the CASHES at a nominal value of 3 billion euros. The expert panel said this was unfair.
The 94-page report will be a key guide for shareholders, who have threatened to overturn the transactions and could still force a full renegotiation of the carve-up.
($1 = 0.7573 euro)
(Reporting by Antonia van de Velde; editing by Karen Foster) Keywords: FORTIS/ (antonia.vandevelde@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: antonia.vandevelde.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; +32 2 287 6810) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
BRUSSELS, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Fortis Holding has reopened talks with the Belgian government and BNP Paribas over the sale of Fortis assets, on the recommendation of a court-appointed panel of experts.
'The experts recommend that several significant elements of the agreements made on 3, 5 and 6 October 2008 be renegotiated. Fortis Holding confirms that it has started negotiations with the Belgian government and BNP Paribas in this respect,' Fortis said in a statement on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy said the talks were being held with a special government-appointed committee and not at the cabinet level.
Fortis shares were up 10.14 percent to 1.55 euros at 0922 GMT, against a 5.07 percent rise for the DJ Stoxx banking index .
The deals the Fortis board agreed to in October, following an 11.2 billion euro ($14.8 billion) cash injection the week prior, were frozen by a Brussels appeals court in December, prompting the collapse of the Belgian government.
The court ordered that shareholders be allowed to vote on the deals at a meeting on Feb. 11 and appointed a five-person expert panel to produce a preliminary report before the meeting.
The negotiators face a probable deadline of Feb. 4, when proxy votes for the shareholders' meeting must be handed in.
A spokeswoman for Fortis Holding declined to comment on whether the shareholders could vote on a renegotiated deal, rather than on the initial agreements.
The experts said on Tuesday that they largely backed the October plan to carve up Fortis between the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments, with BNP Paribas buying the Belgian operations.
They also said BNP Paribas's purchase of Fortis assets was the 'most reasonable and most suitable' outcome of the much-disputed splitting of the group.
However, they recommended renegotiating the deal to return part of Fortis Bank, currently owned by the Belgian government, to Fortis Holding in return for shares.
They also suggested Fortis Holding should retain a stake in Fortis' Belgian insurance business, rather than sell the entire business to BNP Paribas as initially planned.
Under a renegotiated deal, BNP Paribas might also get a larger stake in a structured credit portfolio than the 10 percent initially planned.
It could also renegotiate the so-called CASHES component of deal, which refers to perpetual loans on Fortis's books that were convertible to shares.
Under the original deal, Fortis took a hit of 2.35 billion euros, while BNP was able to keep the CASHES at a nominal value of 3 billion euros. The expert panel said this was unfair.
The 94-page report will be a key guide for shareholders, who have threatened to overturn the transactions and could still force a full renegotiation of the carve-up.
($1 = 0.7573 euro)
(Reporting by Antonia van de Velde; editing by Karen Foster) Keywords: FORTIS/ (antonia.vandevelde@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: antonia.vandevelde.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; +32 2 287 6810) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.