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

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

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

active in

financial services Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, ...

, created in 1931 and merged into KBC Group 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 largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic c ...

) in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

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

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

. 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 ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, which specialized in

private banking Private banking is banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs)—defined as those with very high levels of income or sizable assets. A bank that ...

. 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 (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceutic ...

. 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. It has three divisions: * Agfa Graphics, which offers integrated pr ...

) (Almanij 100%) * Almafin (Almanij 100%) * KBC Bank (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 KBC Group.

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