Fortis: The postman always knocks twice

Fortis looks ripe for a spot of activism. The Belgo-Dutch bancassurer has given investors cold feet by teaming up with the UK’s Royal Bank of Scotland and Spain’s Santander to bid for Holland’s ABN Amro. Fortis shares have fallen nearly 11% since it revealed its hand in April. If a hedge fund could get the bank to drop its bid - in the same way that Atticus is trying to torpedo Barclays’s rival bid for ABN - it might make a big profit. Fortis’s decline has already wiped nearly E4.9bn from its s...