Forex

The cosmetics company spent $44 million to implement the current phase of its restructuring program.

LONDON - The multi-billion dollar purchase of ABN Amro has come back to haunt one of its buyers again. Fortis, one of the three banks that bought the ABN last year, plunged in Thursday trading after saying it was going cap in hand to shareholders, selling assets and scrapping its interim dividend to raise 8.0 billion euros ($12.6 billion) in much-needed capital.

Fortis (other-otc: FORSY - news - people ) was down 10.9%, or 1.38 euros ($2.16), to 11.27 euros ($17.66), on Thursday morning in Brussels.

The Belgian-Dutch bank said that in the "current exceptional circumstances," it had decided to take certain steps to strengthen its capital base. Fortis also proposed to pay its full-year dividend in shares; it did not set a date for when it would reintroduce a cash dividend but said that could happen next year.

"We believe that 2008 will be a difficult year for our industry and we do not expect an improvement in the economic environment soon," said Jean-Paul Votron, the chief executive of Fortis.

The bank said in a press release that it would raise "more than 8.0 billion euros ($12.6 billion)." It would do this by raising "approximately" 1.5 billion euros ($2.4 billion) by selling new shares, save 1.3 billion euros ($2.0 billion) by scrapping its dividend and raise a further 4.0 billion euros ($6.3 billion) by issuing "non-dilutive capital instruments" and through the disposal of non-core assets. It would finally attain 1.5 billion euros ($2.4 billion) through the sale of real estate assets.

All told, the numbers add up to 8.3 billion euros ($13.0 billion), but the discrepancy may mean that the 1.5 billion euros ($2.4 billion) raised in the share sale is in the upper end of Fortis's expectations.

Fortis already launched a 13.4 billion euro ($21.0 billion) rights issue last September, ahead of its acquisition of ABN Amro. In March, it also sold a 50.0% stake in its asset management unit to China's Ping An Insurance, for 2.2 billion euros ($3.5 billion).