Belgium weighs options over frozen Fortis deal

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By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian ministers were to meet later on Monday to decide what action to take after a court ruling derailed a state-led break-up of stricken financial group FORTIS <:FORB.BR:>(FORA.AM) and part sale to France's BNP Paribas .

Prime Minister Yves Leterme has said a cabinet meeting on Monday evening will determine what action the government will take after the appeal court's judgment in favor of some 2,200 angry shareholders.

He said on Sunday that an appeal to the Supreme Court, only possible in the case of a procedural error, or a bid to reopen the case as an affected third party, were the likely options.

Trade in Fortis shares will be suspended for two days, Fortis announced on Monday, pending a statement on the financial impact of the ruling. It would not have a significant negative impact on its current cash position, Fortis added.

A planned December 19 shareholder meeting in Brussels would go ahead, but it would now vote on whether to postpone the main agenda point -- on continuing Fortis's activities.

The court's decision late on Friday has thrown a huge spanner in transactions to carve up the troubled financial group by the Dutch and Belgian governments and the latter's deal with BNP Paribas.

BNP shares were the weakest in the FTSE Eurotop 300 <.PGL.FTE3>, down 8.5 percent at 40.095 euros at 0950 GMT.

The Brussels appeal court froze for 65 days decisions taken by the Fortis board at the start of October on the company's carve-up, and ordered that Fortis shareholders be allowed a say by February 12.

The deals came within a week of an 11.2 billion euros ($14.86 billion) cash injection by the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments which failed to calm investors.

Under the court decision, the Belgian state would be forbidden to sell Fortis assets to BNP Paribas before February 16, 2009, and would face a 5 billion euros penalty if it did.

BNP was expected to have closed its deal to buy Fortis assets this week, but Fortis said that would be postponed.

The Dutch state could face a similar penalty if it tried to sell the Dutch businesses it took control of for 16.8 billion euros on October 3.

EXPERTS TO REVIEW DEALS

The court also ruled that a panel of five experts should determine whether the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments were right to get stakes just short of 50 percent for their capital injections at the end of September.

They should also assess the legality of the sale to BNP and whether shareholders were fairly treated.

Fortis shares, which rose to close to 30 euros in April 2007 before it launched its ill-fated joint bid for Dutch rival ABN AMRO, fell from around 5.40 euros ahead of the carve-up to less than 1 euro after.

Petercam analyst Marc Debrouwer questioned whether the shareholders would get much money back even if the deals were adjusted. The transfer of banking activities was the only viable option and there were no other obvious candidates than BNP.

"In theory BNP got it on the cheap, but at the time Fortis had a major liquidity issue," Debrouwer said. "The task for shareholders will be tough. They might get a slightly better deal, but it will not be a huge difference."

Fortis said it would retain 100 percent ownership of Fortis Insurance Belgium and its assets would not include a planned 66 percent stake in a structured credit portfolio.

BNP has said the decision in no way called into question its interest in the deal. The Dutch finance ministry has said that it believed its deal would be unaffected because the sale of the Dutch assets was conducted according to Dutch law.

Luxembourg Budget Minister Luc Frieden told a local newspaper he did not believe the court ruling called into question his state's sale of Fortis Bank Luxembourg to BNP.

(Additional reporting by Michele Sinner in Luxembourg; Editing by John Stonestreet, Erica Billingham and Mike Nesbit)

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