Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (CZB)
Commerzbank acquires comdirect equity stake and holds more than 90 percent
of comdirect
03-Jan-2020 / 10:03 CET/CEST
Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement, transmitted by EQS Group.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
· *Commerzbank acquires a block of comdirect shares from Petrus Advisers *
· *Investment threshold of more than 90 percent for comdirect squeeze-out
under merger law reached*
· *Zielke: 'Important step to quickly and efficiently execute the
integration of our successful direct banking subsidiary'*
Commerzbank AG will acquire an equity stake in comdirect bank
Aktiengesellschaft ('comdirect') from institutional investor Petrus Advisers
Ltd. through its subsidiary Commerzbank Inlandsbanken Holding GmbH. The
purchase price has not been disclosed.
Once the transaction has been completed, Commerzbank will hold more than 90
percent of the shares of comdirect. Meaning that Commerzbank has reached the
required investment threshold for the merger of comdirect into Commerzbank
by means of a squeeze-out under merger law. In the course of the targeted
squeeze-out, comdirect shareholders will receive a cash compensation for
their shares. 'With the increase of our comdirect stake, we have laid the
basis for a swift merger of comdirect into Commerzbank. This is an important
step to quickly and efficiently execute the integration of our successful
direct banking subsidiary and realise significant synergies. This is a key
component of our Commerzbank 5.0 strategy. With our strong multi-channel
bank we will offer comdirect's excellent brokerage services to all
Commerzbank customers,' says Martin Zielke, Chairman of the Board of
Managing Directors of Commerzbank.
By integrating comdirect, Commerzbank aims to draw on comdirect's strong
digital expertise and innovative capability for the benefit of all Group
customers in future. The integration will also give comdirect the
opportunity to scale up its offering through Commerzbank. For the customers
of comdirect, the usual product and service quality should be maintained and
in the future they will also benefit from Commerzbank's branch presence. In
addition to the strategic advantages of a merger, Commerzbank will realise
significant synergy potential as a result of the integration.
*****
*Press contact*
Nils Happich +49 69 136-80529
Maximilian Bicker +49 69 136-22440
*****
*About Commerzbank*
Commerzbank is a leading international commercial bank with branches and
offices in nearly 50 countries. The Bank's two business segments - Private
and Small-Business Customers and Corporate Clients - offer a comprehensive
portfolio of financial services precisely tailored to their customers'
needs. Commerzbank transacts approximately 30% of Germany's foreign trade
and is the market leader in German corporate banking. The Bank offers its
sector expertise to its corporate clients in Germany and abroad and is a
leading provider of capital market products. Its subsidiaries, comdirect in
Germany and mBank in Poland, are two of the world's most innovative online
banks. With approximately 800 branches going forward, Commerzbank has one of
the densest branch networks in Germany. The Bank serves more than 11 million
private and small-business customers nationwide and over 70,000 corporate
clients, multinationals, financial service providers, and institutional
clients worldwide. Its Polish subsidiary mBank S.A. has around 5.6 million
private and corporate customers, predominantly in Poland, but also in the
Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2018, Commerzbank generated gross revenues
of EUR 8.6 billion with approximately 49,000 employees.
*****
*Disclaimer and Forward-Looking Statement*
This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements
are statements that are not historical facts. In this release, these
statements concern inter alia the expected future business of Commerzbank,
efficiency gains and expected synergies, expected growth prospects and other
opportunities for an increase in value of Commerzbank as well as expected
future financial results, restructuring costs and other financial
developments and information. These forward-looking statements are based on
the management's current plans, expectations, estimates and projections.
They are subject to a number of assumptions and involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and
developments to differ materially from any future results and developments
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors
include the conditions in the financial markets in Germany, in Europe, in
the USA and other regions from which Commerzbank derives a substantial
portion of its revenues and in which Commerzbank holds a substantial portion
of its assets, the development of asset prices and market volatility,
especially due to the ongoing European debt crisis, potential defaults of
borrowers or trading counterparties, the implementation of its strategic
initiatives to improve its business model, the reliability of its risk
management policies, procedures and methods, risks arising as a result of
regulatory change and other risks. Forward-looking statements therefore
speak only as of the date they are made. Commerzbank has no obligation to
update or release any revisions to the forward-looking statements contained
in this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this
release.
ISIN: DE000CBK1001
Category Code: MSCU
TIDM: CZB
LEI Code: 851WYGNLUQLFZBSYGB56
Sequence No.: 38422
EQS News ID: 946229
End of Announcement EQS News Service
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 03, 2020 04:03 ET (09:03 GMT)
