Ageas was spun out of Fortis during the financial crisis after a consortium including Banco Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland launched a failed bid for ABN Amro. The takeover was badly timed and ambitious, and to fund it Fortis started selling noncore divisions while writing down collateralised debt. As Fortis’ capital began to decline, the company initiated a rights issue and the long-held promised dividend was suspended. As Fortis’ share price began to decline and financial market conditions continued to worsen, with a series of leadership changes customers began to withdraw deposits. Fortis was approached by the government and sold its domestic banking operations to the Belgium government, and BNP Paribas and was asked to spin off its insurance and asset management divisions.
