The financial group Fortis said on Friday that it was replacing its chief executive as its shares fell more than 20 percent amid concerns about its liquidity.
Fortis said that Filip Dierckx, 52, who leads the banking unit, would succeed Herman Verwilst. Verwilst, who took over in July after the chief executive, Jean-Paul Votron, came under pressure for shouldering a large bill from the acquisition of a part of the Dutch bank ABN Amro just as the subprime mortgage market started to falter.
“Given his vast experience and knowledge of the company, we’re happy that Filip has accepted this challenging task,” Fortis group chairman Maurice Lippens said in a statement.
PHOTO: EPA
Fortis has been plagued by speculation about its liquidity problems, despite assurances from bank officials and politicians.
Earlier on Friday, Verwilst pledged that Fortis would not go bankrupt and said it could sell more noncore assets than previously foreseen to bolster its balance sheet.
Belgian political leaders including the finance minister, Didier Reynders, also rallied to its side, reassuring customers that bank deposits were guaranteed by the government.
Fortis shares fell sharply all week, leaving the bank’s market value on Friday at 12.2 billion euros (US$17.8 billion) — about a third of what it was at the start of the year.
That is far below the 24 billion euros Fortis paid when it, Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Santander of Spain carved up ABN Amro just a few months before the current financial turmoil began.
Fortis said on Friday that customers had withdrawn about 3 percent of deposits since the start of the year.
The bank announced in June that it was seeking to raise 8.3 billion euros to maintain solvency goals as it absorbs the ABN Amro units, including consumer banking and asset management.
Verwilst said on Friday that the bank already had raised 3.1 billion euros, and had now identified assets worth up to 10 billion euros to help generate up to 5 billion euros of the remainder.
In June, Fortis had said it was only aiming to sell noncore assets worth about 2 billion euros.
Ivan Lathouders, an analyst with Bank Degroof in Brussels, said the 8.3 billion euros should be enough to keep the bank solvent.
But he warned that instability in the markets could lead to further falls in the bank’s share price. He also warned that more clients could withdraw their savings.
“No one really knows what will happen,” Lathouders said.
Some analysts said the tumbling value of shares in Fortis made it a takeover target.
“We see an increasing likelihood of an acquisition,” said Jaap Meijer, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort in London.
The most probable bidders, he said, would be BNP Paribas of France or the Dutch lender ING.
He also said that BNP and ING — instead of buying the bank — could purchase pieces of Fortis, like its private banking or its clearing and asset management units.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
RSS