The Dutch government is likely to sell its first stake in ABN AMRO through an initial public offering (IPO) next year.
The IPO is considered to be one of largest bank flotations in a decade since the global financial crisis.
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The Dutch government intends to reach a final decision on the sale in the first quarter of next year, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Gerrit Zalm, CEO of ABN AMRO, said: "Our preparations for the IPO focus on the first six months of 2015. We must show that we have our house in order and I believe we have made a lot of progress."
The government is looking for a complete exit from ABN AMRO and plans to provide the bank with the option of activating a so-called poison pill that would enable it to block takeover attempts.
"This will buy us time when there is a party with a hostile bid. It allows us to present an attractive alternative to shareholders," the publication quoted Zalm as saying.
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By GlobalDataZalm added that he is not expecting large European banks to acquire ABN AMRO, which has a balance sheet of more than EUR400bn and a book value of almost EUR15bn.
According to The Wall Street Journal, ABN AMRO is also seeking to sharpen financial goals ahead of the IPO by increasing the bank’s return-on-equity target. The bank now earns 82% of its income from the Netherlands.
Additionally, the bank has come under new European and domestic banking regulations that will result in 300m in costs next year.
Zalm said: "I don’t expect we’ll ever see returns of 20% again so you shouldn’t expect anything spectacular. But we should be able to achieve a return-on-equity in the low double digits."
