EU conditionally clears Fortis buy of ABN assets

Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis won conditional clearance on Wednesday from the European Commission for its proposed acquisition of parts of Dutch peer ABN AMRO.

The Commission said Fortis had agreed to divest ABN AMRO's Dutch factoring subsidiary and part of its Dutch commercial banking business to alleviate antitrust concerns in the Netherlands, where both banks are active.

In light of this commitment, the Commission has concluded that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it, the Commission said in a statement.

Fortis along with consortium partners Royal Bank of Scotland and Spain's Santander unveiled a bid currently worth 71 billion euros ($100.6 billion) for ABN in May, rivaling an offer from Britain's Barclays.

Fortis said last month that it had offered remedies to the Commission's antitrust concerns which would involve selling about 10 percent of its business unit in the Netherlands.

It said it would sell commercial bank Hollandsche Bank Unie, 13 advisory branches, two corporate client units and its factoring portfolio.