Dutch bank ABN Amro buys domestic peer NIBC for $1.1 billion

By Mateusz Rabiega and Jakob Van Calster

(Reuters) -Dutch bank ABN Amro on Wednesday said that it had acquired domestic commercial lender NIBC Bank from private equity firm Blackstone, strengthening its position in its home market.

The acquisition, for an estimated price of 960 million euros ($1.1 billion), is set to close in the second half of next year. It is expected to improve ABN Amro's profitability and generate a return on invested capital of roughly 18%, the bank said.

Shares in ABN were up 3.4% at 1017 GMT. Analysts at ING said the takeover was "a good value for money deal if execution is sound and ABN uses it to tackle its overriding cost issue".

ABN Amro also beat market expectations for third-quarter profit, partly due to the release of funds that had been set aside to cover bad loans but are no longer required.

Net profit fell by 11% from a year ago to 617 million euros ($720 million), ahead of analysts' median forecast of 589 million.

ABN Amro has previously made expenses a priority as it attempts to slim down its personnel. Third quarter costs were higher than anticipated, however, in part due to the integration of staff from the German Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe bank. 

The bank now targets 5.4-5.5 billion euros of expenses in 2025, compared to a market forecast of 5.56 billion.

Nonetheless, including the merging of HAL's employees, ABN's full time equivalent (FTE) workforce increased to 25,921 from 25,362 quarter-on-quarter. At the end of the first half of 2025, the newly acquired NIBC's internal FTEs, which were not included in the group, stood at 594.

The lender also said it would increase its focus on its main mortgage labels. Its share in the Dutch mortgage market increased to 19% and grew by 2.1 billion euros in the quarter.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)

(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega and Jakob Van Calster; Editing by Matt Scuffham)