ABN Amro takeover talks have started, though Nordea says they’ll be put on ice until after the Dutch elections
The chairman of Swedish banking giant Nordea confirmed that it has held preliminary talks with Dutch authorities over a future tie-up with state-backed lender ABN Amro.
Local media reported earlier this month that Nordea had approached ABN Amro and Bjorn Wahlroos told Finnish broadcaster YLE today that although this was the case there would be no firm commitment until next year.
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"It was a very preliminary contact … at the moment it looks like [talks] will not go forward until the Dutch parliamentary election [in March 2017]. I believe it is quite clear that due to the elections, there is not much enthusiasm right now for a larger project in the government level," said Wahlroos.
The Dutch government, which owns the majority of ABN Amro's shares, had previously dismissed the possibility of a takeover in the wake of the media reports.
Nevertheless, Wahlroos said that Nordea was keen to expand its operations after spending more than €1bn (£900m) developing its information technology infrastructure.
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"The Netherlands is a very Scandinavian-type of country in many ways, open, liberal, market-oriented… [the combined bank] would be a pretty fine bank," he added.
Wahlroos also revealed that he had floated the idea to the Dutch government that the combined company's headquarters could move from Sweden to the Netherlands.