Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis today set a deep discount on a €13.4 billion rights issue to move closer to its acquisition of parts of ABN Amro.
Fortis priced the new shares at €15 each. The exchange ratio for the rights issue is two new shares for three existing shares held at the market close on September 24th, it said.
Shares in Fortis rose 2.5 per cent to €27.28 earlier today, outperforming the DJ Stoxx European banking index's 0.2 per cent gain.
The upswing in the share price was also seen as a sign that the rights issue will be successful, analysts said.
The price of €15 is a discount of 44 per cent to Fortis's average closing price of €26.62 yesterday and a 32 per cent discount to the more closely watched average value of three Fortis' shares at €26.62 each, and two new shares of €15 each.