Abstract
ABN Amro bank comes from the merger between two Dutch banks Algermene Bank Netherlands N.V. and Amsterdam Rotterdam Bank N.V. in 1991. ABN Amro's strategic focus is on consumer and commercial clients in local markets and on corporations and financial institutions in the global market. Currently it is ranked as the eighth largest bank in Europe and the thirteenth in the world. It has five Business Units world wide: Netherlands, Europe, Asia (special focus in China, India, Pakistan, Singapore and Indonesia), North America and Latin America. In 2006 it acquired Antonveneta, the ninth Italian bank according to its number of clients. In 2005 it acquired the Belgian Bank Corluy and in 2004, the Frankfurt based Bethmann and Munich based Maffei.
ABN Amro is based in the Netherlands and adheres to the Dutch Corporate Governance Code. It is listed in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and New York exchanges. On March 17th 2006 it was removed from the London Stock Exchange, and announced in January 2007 that it will also delist from Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris. It is also registered in the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In the New York Exchange the shares are American Depositary Shares represented in American Receipts (ADR) which are equivalent to an ordinary share. On the other hand, the preference shares are listed in Euronext Amsterdam. After a study made in December 2006, 78.1% of the ordinary shares in ABN Amro Holding N.V were identified; of which institutional investors held 87.3% and retail investors held 12.7%. Benelux institutional investors owned 15% of the outstanding ordinary shares. The major holders of depositary receipts of preference shares are: ING Groep N.V. (21,29%); Aviva plc (17,48%); Fortis Utrecht N.V. (16,85%); Kempen Capital Management Ltd (15,02%); Aegon N.V. (14,33%); and Euroko B.V. (12,12%). The depositary receipts of preference shares are issued by the Trust Office (non-membership organization), who holds 100% of the outstanding preference shares, but only has 1.58% of voting power of all the issued capital.
