THE HAGUE, 06/02/07 - The finance ministry is selling publisher SDU to Dutch bank ABN Amro and German insurer Alllianz. Further details will follow later.

Talks with unions and the works council are in full swing, said a finance ministry spokesman yesterday. "The talks are a hair's breadth away from completion." Additionally, the European competition authority still has to approve the takeover. The transaction is expected to be completed in March.

SDU, 75 percent owned by the state, publishes the official State Gazette (Staatscourant) and a series of professional publications. The publisher also produces Dutch passports, identity cards and driving licences and manufactures voting machines. Because the latter are unreliable, the computers were withdrawn from the Lower House elections last November and are not allowed to be used for the Upper House elections next month either.

The remaining 25 percent stake is owned by publisher Wolters Kluwer. "This is a share in a subsidiary of SDU," according to a Wolters Kluwer spokesman. In response to the question of whether this share would now also be sold, he declined to comment.

SDU has been up for sale since March. Its value is estimated at 400 to 480 million euros. What the two companies plan to do with it has not yet been revealed.