Brussels - Shares in troubled Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis plummetted Thursday after shareholders rejected a plan to break up and nationalize the bank, one of Europe's highest-profile victims of the global financial crisis.

The share price quoted on the Brussels stock exchange fell 17 per cent as markets opened Thursday. By mid-morning shares were trading at 1.19 euros (1.54 dollars), some 10 per cent below Wednesday's listing.

That price values Fortis at one-tenth of what it was worth in July, before the bank fell victim to the financial crisis sparked by the collapse in the US market for insufficiently-secured housing loans known as subprime mortgages.

In October, the Belgian and Dutch governments stepped in. Their rescue plan was based on splitting the bank into its component parts, with the Dutch government taking over the Dutch segment and the Belgian state selling a majority stake to French bank BNP Paribas.

But on Wednesday, Fortis shareholders rejected both parts of the deal, throwing the bank's future into doubt.

Shareholders are now waiting to see how BNP Paribas will react, and whether the European Union will push through plans to set up a "bad bank" designed to relieve banks such as Fortis from now-worthless assets, Dutch-language broadcaster VRT said. (dpa)