Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: A Horse With No Name who wrote (131131)	6/28/2008 10:34:37 AM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 306849

This is a large capital increase. 8B Eur are more than 12.5B USD, that dwarfs capital raising activities by similarly sized US banks. And fortis is much smaller than ABNAmro, Santander, Deutsche, RBS, or Barclays. its market cap is 23.5B. >>>>>>>>>>> Fortis expects bankruptcies amongst 6000 American banks which have a small coverage currently. <<<<<<<<<<< yes, agree. The dutch original says that those banks have only a small layer of equity in the balance sheet.("nu weinig dekking") dft.nl yesterday Fortis took in € 1.5 billion with a share issue. At the end of last year was the Belgian-Dutch group € 13 billion of new shares for the takeover of ABN Amro, for which it paid € 24 billion. Lippens bases its concern on interviews with bankers. "Two months ago we knew that it is not so bad in America. And it will be much worse. We have a thick mattress needed for the next eighteen months to come when we can bring to ABN Amro. " Two weeks ago reported the U.S. investment bank and adviser to Fortis Merrill Lynch asserted that € 6.2 billion in additional capital was needed. The VEB yesterday demanded clarification of Fortis: CEO Jean-Paul Votron stated in late april Fortis that after the purchase of ABN Amro does not need money from the capital market. In one year € 30 billion in market capitalization has been destroyed. After Votron last confession the share price plumetted by 19.4%, though yesterday it climbed by 4.4% to € 10.65. The massive unrest around the bank insurers, especially with our neighbours in Belgium is viewed as a detonated bomb. While the fuss arose in the Netherlands to the local financial world, the call of the day is with our neighbours . Not only is the bank dominates the streetscape, but by the mokerslag for the Belgian volksaandeel are also hundreds of thousands of small investors hit hard. All Belgian newspapers opened yesterday with real rampenkoppen, where the free fall of the bank insurers was wide coverage. 'Fortis crashes, "" Rampdag for Fortis' and' Fortis loses 5.3 billion, "read three leading newspapers. The panic around the group across the border is so great that the national regulator CFBA has reassuring words to say to the desperate savers. "The emergency of Fortis is no reason of a bank run and money to get off," said a CFBA spokesperson. "The bank complies with all legal requirements, but has itself just very sharp targets." Maurice Lippens claims that yesterday all major shareholders have pledged "unanimously support" . Arrows in the Netherlands focus mainly on CEO Jean-Paul Votron, who is sullied by having complied with the takeover of ABN Amro. But while the Netherlands is calling his bonus of € 2.5 million to be paid back, folks in Belgium are demanding his departure. Someone who makes such big mistakes must bear the consequences and therefore resign, "said Huybregtse, chairman of the Flemish federation of Investment and Investors. The fall of the share is a confirmation that the takeover of ABN Amro is far too expensive and was poorly timed. "The former shareholders of ABN Amro are now taking a bath in champagne", stressed Huybrechts. "Someone who makes major mistakes, must go. Fortis is a really volksaandeel and with confidence that you can not cope reckless. " The Belgian newspaper, the Standard, is tough on the CEO: "The credit crisis has affected all banks, but this is no excuse. Fortis is much sharper to fall, "says the commentator. "Fortis has always denied that there was a capital increase. They were therefore either lies or ignorance. Both are equally bad, so Votron mit take the blame to himself. He is the only one who has earned something to the whole operation. " According to Belgian media Fortis sought to announce Thursday that the bonus Votron would be removed, but as of now this has not yet happened. Also, there is all press speculation about his succession, with the name of Filip Dierckx. Votron itself stays firm. "The shareholders are behind me and also the top of the group, I only support for this I have put in operation," said Fortis chief executive who is under fire. The return of the now controversial bonus points he resolutely. "What I do with my money is my concern. The bonus had nothing to do with ABN Amro, but was paid for the year 2007, "said Votron. The CEO is a willing(?) part of his salary in Fortis documents. Votron may also still rely entirely on chairman Lippens, who denies that the bank has completed the takeover of ABN Amro . "Votron remains simply the CEO. At present intervention, which is difficult, that's really show leadership. "

To: A Horse With No Name who wrote (131131)	6/28/2008 10:52:25 AM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 306849

more on fortis...selling and leasing back some of their own property??? yikes news.bbc.co.uk Fortis seeks to bolster finances Fortis headquarters in Brussels Fortis was one of the banks that bought ABN Amro last year The Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis is taking steps to increase its solvency by about 8bn euros ($12.5bn; £6.3bn). Like many banks, Fortis needs extra capital to deal with the credit crunch, and it also needs to fund its 24bn euro acquisition of parts of ABN Amro. Fortis will issue 1.5bn euros in new shares, it will not pay an interim dividend and it plans to pay its full-year dividend in shares. Fortis shares fell 17% to 10.49 euros, the lowest in more than five years. "We are unpleasantly surprised by today's announcement," said Ivan Lathouders, an analyst at Bank Degroof. "Measures of this scale clearly indicate that management is not very confident in Fortis's ability to generate organic solvency in the near term." Carlo Ponfoort, an analyst at Effectenkantoor, said that the shock for investors was that the bank would not pay a dividend and that banking stocks should "always pay dividends". Bite the bullet The bank also plans to sell and lease back some of its property, sell non-core assets and issue up to 2bn euros of non-dilutive capital instruments, such as preference shares. Fortis took a charge of 380m euros from sub-prime losses in the first three months of the year. The bank was part of the consortium with Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander that bought ABN Amro last year for 70bn euros. Fortis ended up with ABN's Dutch operations, as well as its private banking and asset management businesses. The company said difficult market conditions, caused by a global credit crunch, meant it had to take "exceptional measures". For some observers, the biggest fear was that the company was still not out of the woods, and its earlier problems may resurface. "After an initial relief that the 'news is out' and Fortis has bitten the bullet, we think that doubts will come back soon," said Ton Gietman, an analyst at Petercam.