BNP Paribas Fortis

BNP Paribas Fortis is the commercial name of Fortis Bank S.A./N.V., an international bank with its focus in Belgium since the purchase of 75% of the shares of the bank by BNP Paribas. It was formerly, together with Fortis Bank Nederland, the banking arm of Fortis. The conjunction of the ABN-AMRO takeover, the subprime crisis and management mistakes led to the sale of the Dutch and Luxembourg parts of the banking branch of Fortis to the Dutch and Luxembourg governments. Fortis Bank itself was first partly bought by the Belgian government (for € 4.7 billion), then fully purchased by the government and sold to BNP Paribas.

A court decision had adjudged, on December 12, 2008, the ownership to be the result of an illegitimate action; the sale was made contingent on shareholder approval. The February 11, 2009, meeting of shareholders declined to approve the sale, but after some changes were made to the deal further to a renegotiation with BNP Paribas, the sale was approved by the general meetings of April 28 (Ghent) and 29 (Utrecht), and finalised on May 12.