By William Launder
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- The Dutch Finance Ministry and Germany's Deutsche Bank AG (DB) are "making progress" in negotiations for Deutsche Bank to acquire Dutch bank assets ahead of a midnight deadline Monday mandated by the European Commission to make a deal, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.
The Dutch state has to sell the bank assets ahead of a European Union deadline as it seeks to merge the Dutch businesses of ABN Amro with those of Fortis Bank Netherlands, which it took over in 2008 to prevent from collapse.
The European Commission wants to resolve competition issues that would arise from merging ABN Amro and Fortis and has already extended the deadline for sale of the bank assets on several occasions.
A previous deal for Deutsche Bank to acquire some of the assets fell through at the beginning of October. That deal was an attempt to renegotiate the terms of a preliminary agreement signed last year for Deutsche Bank to acquire EUR709 million in assets from Fortis as part of its acquisition of ABN Amro.
A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
French bank BNP Paribas SA (BNP.FR) backed out of a deal to buy Fortis assets earlier this month, according to people familiar with the matter.
Company Web site: http://www.db.com
http://www.abnamro.com
-By William Launder; Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 515; william.launder@dowjones.com