Belgium will sell part of its 7.8% in BNP Paribas for more than 2,000 million dollars

PARIS, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Belgium is preparing to sell a third of its 7.8% stake in BNP Paribas, the biggest bank in the euro zone, the Belgian industrial holding company SFPI announced on Tuesday.

Belgium became a shareholder of French bank BNP Paribas in 2008, following the bailout of local financial group Fortis, taken over by the French bank in a state-backed operation.

Until Tuesday, the Belgian state was the largest investor in BNP Paribas, ahead of asset managers Amundi and BlackRock, with 7% and 6% of the group’s shares respectively, according to Refinitiv data.

The public Belgian industrial holding company will sell around 2.7% of the French bank, it said in a statement, reducing Belgium’s stake to around 5.1%.

Shortly before the end of the deadline for submitting orders to buy shares, investment agencies informed investors that the likely price of the operation would be 64.96 euros per share, according to messages seen by Reuters, either a discount of 1.8% compared to the last closing price of BNP Paribas. The book closing was scheduled for 2000 CET (1900 GMT).

Based on the bank’s market capitalization, the deal’s value would exceed approximately $2 trillion.

Lazard is advising Belgium on the transaction, while BNP Paribas Fortis, BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs International are acting as joint placement agencies, according to the SFPI.

BNP Paribas declined to comment.

(1 dollar = 0.9445 euros)

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Tassilo Hummel, Mathieu Rosemain, Pablo Cerqueiro Mayo; editing by Toby Chopra, Ed Osmond and Barbara Lewis;