Amsterdam - The Belgian-Dutch insurer and banking giant Fortis has bought all shares of British Artemis Asset Management Ltd, Fortis said Wednesday.

The 397.2-million-euro (559.27-million-dollar) transaction was the last step in the integration of Artemis.

Artemis was already 67.1-per-cent owned by ABN Amro Asset Management, which was fully taken over by Fortis in April.

The last shares were purchased from the management, which, according to Fortis, would remain involved with Artemis.

Fortis said the purchase was part of an earlier agreement.

On Sunday, Fortis was partly nationalized by the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, which each bought 40 per cent of the company for 11.2 billion euros to try to rescue the bank.

Fortis had been in need of substantial extra funding ever since it participated in the takeover of Dutch ABN Amro bank in 2007, contributing about 24 billion euros.

Fortis said it planned to sell ABN Amro's Dutch consumer banking units, which had not yet been integrated into the company.

The Dutch central bank, however, has not yet given permission for the sale of ABN Amro. (dpa)