BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- A wide majority of shareholders in financial company Fortis NV (FORSY) Monday voted in favor of the Dutch-Belgian bank's plan to takeover peer ABN Amro Holding NV (ABN) at the first of two extraordinaryshareholder meetings.
Shareholders also approved a EUR13 billion rights issue to finance itsparticipation in the ABN deal.
The vote is seen as a key moment in the battle for ABN Amro . Fortis isparticipating in a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS.LN) andalso consists of Spain's Banco Santander SA (STD). It is bidding about EUR72billion ( $99 billion), above a competing bid from U.K. bank Barclays PLC (BCS)of EUR65 billion.
Fortis needed 50% of present votes to go ahead with the takeover plan and 75%of present votes for the rights issue.
Some 34.7% of outstanding share capital was represented in Brussels.
On July 26, Fortis had also planned to organize two shareholder meetings, butit failed to meet the required quorum of 50% of the issued and outstandingcapital on that day.
For the two meetings of Monday, no minimum representation of capital wasrequired.
At the meeting, some 95.5% of Fortis shareholders voted for the takeover planand 93.5% voted for the rights issue.
A second extraordinary shareholder meeting is scheduled later Monday in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
At 0940 GMT, Fortis shares were down EUR0.69, or 2.4% at EUR27.77. ABN Amro shares were up EUR0.70, or 2%, at EUR35.75.
Company Web site: http://www.fortis.com
-By Stefan Kloet; Dow Jones Newswires +31-20-6260770; stefan.kloet@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 08-06-07 0600ET Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
