NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM - Partially-nationalised bancassurer Fortis has announced the €2.15bn deal to sell half of its asset management business to Chinese insurer Ping An is unlikely to be completed.

Ping An has acknowledged the statement sent out by the Belgian-Dutch bank late last night, though has not make any further announcements as it is a national holiday today in the People's Republic of China.

A spokesman for Fortis told IPE this morning the bank will now continue its growth strategy independently, adding Fortis Investments, the asset management arm of Fortis which manages around €240bn in assets under management, is still mulling an "expansion in Asia".

"In order to provide clarity to the market and in the context of the current severe market disruption and the ongoing uncertainty in the global capital markets, Fortis announces that it expects not to be able to complete the asset management partnership with Ping An," said Fortis in a statement.

That said, the spokesman added the decision to scrap the joint venture was not yet 100% as a deal could still be concluded.

Earlier this week, Fortis received a €11.2bn capital injection from the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg (Benelux) governments. (See earlier IPE story: ‘Investment arm untouched by Fortis rescue')

Filip Dierckx, the newly-appointed chief executive officer of Fortis Group, said in a conference call on Monday the proceeds from the Ping An joint venture had not been factored into the 9% core tier capital ratio that Fortis will have following the rescue deal.

He added the recently-acquired asset management business of Dutch bank ABN Amro had already been disassociated from the bank "so that remains within Fortis in the context of what was explained in the past".

The integration of ABN Amro asset management into Fortis Investments is expected to be concluded later this year.

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