FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- The European Commission late Monday said it granted the Dutch government a 24-hour extension on talks to divest of state banking assets.
The extension was granted "in light of encouraging developments" in a potential sales process, the European Commission said.
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.
Deutsche Bank AG (DB) is widely considered interested in buying the Dutch bank assets, given a previous deal with the Dutch government on bank 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.
Company Web sites:
http://www.db.com
http://www.abnamro.com
-By William Launder; Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 515; william.launder@dowjones.com