By Bart Koster and William Launder
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said Monday he is "hopeful" that a deal between Dutch state-owned ABN Amro Bank and Germany's Deutsche Bank AG (DB) will be worked out successfully.
"Things go well," he said in response to reporters' questions at a news conference, adding that he is hopeful that a deal will be worked out to the satisfaction of the European Commission. He declined to elaborate.
The Commission has set a deadline of midnight Monday for a deal to be made.
The Dutch state is required to sell some bank assets to resolve competition issues as it seeks to merge the Dutch businesses of ABN Amro with those of Fortis Bank Netherlands, both of which it took over in October 2008 to prevent a collapse.
The Commission and has already extended the deadline for a sale 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.
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.
- By Bart Koster; Dow Jones Newswires; +31 20 571 5201; bart.koster@dowjones.com
(William Launder reported from Frankfurt.)