LUXEMBOURG/NETHERLANDS – Dexia Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (Dexia BIL) has made an approved e1.05bn takeover bid for Amsterdam based mid and small cap specialist investment group Kempen & Co.

The deal values Kempen at 16 times its net profit for last year.
Dexia must now garner at least 95% of the share vote of Kempen for the deal to go ahead, although the merger has been approved by both Kempen’s supervisory and management boards.
Kempen’s largest shareholder is Dutch group Fortis, which holds just over 20% of its assets.

Last year Dexia bought Bank Labouchere in the Netherlands and the group says it will seek to integrate the two Dutch firms under the Dexia Nederland brand.
The acquisition, says Dexia, underlines its pan-European development policy, centred on the company’s ‘home base’ of France and the Benelux countries, which it notes has one of the most important savings pools to be tapped.

Dexia says the Kempen buy-out will boost the group on several fronts: “ The bank possesses specialist knowledge of the Dutch marker thanks to its research teams whose skills are highly regarded in certain key sectors (property, TMT, food and food retail, and temporary employment).”

Last year investment management, one of Dexia’s core businesses, contributed 25% to the group’s overall results.

At the end of last year Kempen had a staff of 353, mostly in Amsterdam, but also at its offices in Antwerp, Geneva , Edinburgh and New York, generating income of e161m for the company.



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