AGEAS CONFIRMS RECEIPT OF €885M IN COUNTERCLAIM FROM DUTCH STATE

Belgium-based insurer Ageas, formerly part of the ill-fated Dutch-Belgian financial services group Fortis, has confirmed that it has received two counterclaims from the Dutch State, for €675m ($904m) and €210m, although no litigation has yet been initiated. The dispute between Ageas and the Dutch state, in which Ageas is claiming €2bn, relates to Mandatory Convertible Securities (MCS) and the mess that ensued when Fortis was unilaterally partly nationalized by the Dutch government in late 2008. The MCS were issued in the happier times of 20067 and were seen at the time as an intra-group transaction. When the company was broken up, the legal nature of the MCS became considerably more important to the rump of Fortis, now Ageas, and to the Dutch state, now owner of Fortis Bank Nederland. The Dutch Ministry of Finance, or ABN Amro Bank NV (formerly Fortis Bank Nederland), have indicated that they are considering a buyback of these MCS in order to prevent them being converted into Ageas shares. Ageas would consider such a buyback to be in breach of contractual commitments undertaken by all of the parties concerned. Ageas' claim for €2bn – the original value of the MCS – could be considered optimistic, given that the 106m shares in question are now considered to be worth not much more than a tenth of that sum. Ageas maintains that the Dutch counterclaim tries to rewrite the economic agreement signed in October 2008, under which BNP Paribas bought much of Fortis in Belgium and Luxembourg, with the Dutch state taking control of banking and insurance interests in the Netherlands, and Ageas keeping the international insurance operations. While in September Ageas said that it was open to negotiations that might lead to an "amicable settlement", its statement on December 24 said only that Ageas intended to contest the merits of the Dutch state's claims.