Almanij (for ''Algemene'' ''Maatschappij'' voor ''Nijverheidskrediet'', "General Credit Company for Industry") was a Belgian

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

active in

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

, created in 1931 and merged into

KBC Group KBC Group N.V. is a Belgian universal multi-channel bank-insurer, focusing on private clients and small and medium-sized enterprises in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It was created in 1998 through the merger of Kredie ...

in March 2005.

History

Almanij was incorporated in 1931 as an initiative of the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Algemeene Bankvereeniging, a Belgian bank founded by the ''Leuvense Volksbank'' (

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

) in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

in 1921. This was done in order to regroup its industrial holdings in Belgium and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. In 1935, the Middenkredietkas went nearly bankrupt due to the economic crisis, which led to the establishment of the ''Kredietbank'' of which Almanij became a shareholder. The

''Boerenbond'' (E: Belgian Farmers’ Union) created its own network of savings banks: CERA instead of relying on the Middenkredietkas, which was closely related to the Algemeene Bankvereeniging. In 1949, the ''Kredietbank Luxembourgeoise'' was founded in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, which specialized in

private banking Private banking is a general description for banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) – those with very high income or substantial asset ...

. In 1997, Almanij gained control of Gevaert, an investment company created in 1981 by Andre Leysen to manage the proceeds of the sale of Agfa-Gevaert to the German company,

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

. Almanij acquired all shares of Gevaert in 2002. In 1998, Kredietbank Group with CERA Bank and ''Assurantiën Belgische Boerenbond'' (E:ABB-insurance) merged into ''KBC Bank and Insurance Group''. In 2004, all activities outside the KBC and KBL groups were transferred to Gevaert. Almanij used to hold four stakes in major companies: * Gevaert NV (investment company which owns 27.2% of

Agfa-Gevaert Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Agfa) is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products, software, and systems. The company began as a dye manufacturer in 1867. In 1925, the comp ...

) (Almanij 100%) * Almafin (Almanij 100%) *

KBC Bank KBC Group N.V. is a Belgian universal multi-channel bank-insurer, focusing on private clients and small and medium-sized enterprises in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It was created in 1998 through the merger of Kredi ...

(Almanij 69.18%) * Kredietbank Luxembourgeoise (KBL) (Almanij 78.60%) In 2005, Almanij ceased to exist as a separate entity when it merged with KBC to form the

Sources

Almanij

Het bank- en verzekeringsgswezen in Antwerpen tijdens het interbellum
(Dutch)
Fusie van KBC en Almanij
(Dutch)
Van Middenkredietkas tot Almanij
(Dutch)
Kbc neemt Almanij over
(Dutch)

References

Financial services companies established in 1931 Financial services companies of Belgium Holding companies of Belgium {{Belgium-company-stub

History

See also

Sources

References