The Dutch government has indicated that it is planning to sell shares in leading bank, ABN AMRO through an initial public offering (IPO) during the next year.

Experts have said that the government is not likely to recover its costs through the sale of shares. The government has estimated that the bank has market value of about _15 billion, which is higher than estimated by some financial analysts but much lower than what the Dutch taxpayers had invested in the bank to rescue it during the financial crisis in 2008.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, "We will get as good a price as possible. The chance of selling with a profit is small. We will decide in a year if it is time and in the meantime we will ask ABN AMRO to get ready for a listing."

The rescue of ABN AMRO and related entities cost _16.8 billion and this increased to _27.9 billion over the years, according to the finance ministry. The government had paid a total of about _40 billion to rescue the domestic financial sector firms including banking and insurance group ING, insurer Aegon and financial group SNS Reaal, as well as ABN AMRO in 2008.

ABN AMRO chief executive Gerrit Zalm said that plans would be a first step towards the privatisation and the IPO might be launched during the first half of 2015.