Rabobank, the Dutch co-operative banking group which operates in Ireland, reported a 20 per cent rise in 2015 net profit on Thursday to €2.21 billion in a rebounding Dutch economy, the Irish Times reported. The dominating factor was a fall in loan provisions of more than €1 billion, to €343 million, though Rabobank said that low level would probably not be maintained in 2016. Rabobank in December announced plans to shed 9,000 jobs, a fifth of its workforce, and sell as much as €150 billion worth of assets on its balance sheet by 2020 to make itself more resilient to financial shocks.

PGGM, one of the largest Dutch pension fund managers, will on Monday complete a €2.3bn trade to insure loans of Santander, the Spanish bank, in a deal that highlights the growing appeal of exotic financial instruments in a world of ultra-low interest rates, the Financial Times reported. The two parties are finalising a so-called synthetic securitisation deal, by which PGGM will sell credit insurance against potential losses on a portion of more than 6,000 Santander loans to small and medium enterprises.

Vroom & Dreesman, the largest Dutch department store chain, has been declared bankrupt, it said in a statement published on its website on Thursday. V&D, with 10,000 workers at 67 stores, has suffered in recent years as the Dutch economy stagnated and on-line stores won away customers. After weak sales in the Dutch holiday season, which falls in early December, it filed for protection from creditors on Dec. 22. A statement on the company's website said it hopes to remain in business after a restructuring, and that it has been contacted by "dozens" of potential investors.

Vroom & Dreesman, the largest Dutch department store chain, has been declared bankrupt, Reuters reported today. V&D, with 10,000 workers at 67 stores, has suffered in recent years as the Dutch economy stagnated and on-line stores won away customers. After weak sales in the Dutch holiday season, which falls in early December, it filed for protection from creditors on Dec. 22. The company said that it hopes to remain in business after a restructuring, and that it has been contacted by "dozens" of potential investors.

Vroom & Dreesman, the largest department store chain in the Netherlands, has been granted protection from creditors after failed efforts to turn around the troubled business, Reuters reported today. V&D, with 10,000 employees at 62 stores across the Netherlands, has struggled to cut costs after posting losses in 2014. "It is a huge disappointment that we have to seek protection from our creditors," Chief Executive John van der Ent said in a statement.

The government of the Netherlands said on Tuesday that it planned to proceed with a sale of shares of the state-owned lender ABN Amro in an initial public offering, possibly as soon as the fourth quarter of this year, the International New York Times reported. The government aims to recoup tens of billions of euros that it spent to rescue the lender seven years ago.

The private equity fund that backed the buyout of parts of the former Quinn Group last year is poised to swoop on the Irish arm of troubled Dutch engineer, Imtech, saving 700 jobs, the Irish Times reported. The parent of Waterford engineering business, Imtech Suir, confirmed yesterday that it is in talks about a possible sale of the company to US and European investment fund Endless LLP and predicted that a deal would close next week.

Administrators for bankrupt technical services company Imtech said on Wednesday they had found buyers for two more units, securing a further 248 jobs. Imtech Industrial International and Ventilex have been bought by asset manager Techim, which looks after the financial interests of several wealthy families. In addition, parts of Imtech Building Services are also being sold and sector peer Unica has agreed to take over contracts worth €150m. Imtech’s Irish arm and Imtech UK may also be sold to British investment house Endless, which is now in exclusive talks with the administrators.

Dutch engineering services company Royal Imtech has been declared bankrupt and its Marine and Nordic divisions are being sold to private investors, the company and its administrators said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Imtech, which employs 22,000 people in 35 countries and has annual sales of roughly 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion), filed for protection from creditors on Tuesday after its German unit filed for insolvency.

The insolvency of Royal Imtech's German arm last week was triggered by the parent company's failure to pay the unit 21 million euros ($23 million) it owed, Imtech Deutschland's insolvency administrator said, Reuters reported. Royal Imtech filed for protection from its creditors on Tuesday, five days after the German unit made a similar filing, overwhelmed by accounting fraud in Germany that triggered three years of operating losses and major asset writedowns.