Belgian and Dutch states targeted by 2,300 shareholders
Minority shareholders of Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis will lodge new legal action over the breakup of the group, Dow Jones reports.
The case, targeting primarily the Belgian and Dutch states, will be filed with the Brussels commercial court early next week, said lawyer Mischael Modrikanem, who represents 2,300 shareholders.
Belgian shareholders won a case in mid-December seeking a vote on the group's break-up through its takeover by the Dutch government and French bank BNP Paribas, putting the sale on hold.
That court victory triggered the collapse of the Belgian government.
Modrikanem told a news conference that the latest legal move aimed to widen the scope of the case by bringing in Fortis and all of its subsidiaries, the Belgian state industrial holding company, the Dutch state and the Dutch central bank.
"The Dutch have to be shown in a very clear way that they are concerned" by the move, he said. "It's a fundamental error on the part of the Dutch state to think its beyond the reach of justice," he said in a reference to The Hague's takeover of Fortis' Dutch operations in October.
