German mail carrier Deutsche Post says banking unit not for sale

The mail carrier Deutsche Post, which is now in majority private control, said Tuesday its wholly owned banking unit, Postbank, which has the biggest customer base of any German bank, was not for sale.

Amid speculation that banking mergers are afoot, Deutsche Bank had earlier hinted fresh interest in acquiring Postbank, one year after premature publicity aborted a takeover bid.

Investment funds worldwide lined up Monday to buy a 110-million-share tranche of Deutsche Post, which started life as the government ministry of posts and was floated nearly five years ago.

KfW, the federal government bank that sold the stake, said 53.8 per cent of Deutsche Post was in private hands after the transaction, and managers Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and UBS had an option to buy a further 16.5 million shares by July 14.

That would mean 55.3 per cent of Deutsche Post would be privately held. According to KfW, the chances of such a further sale were good as demand for the shares had been strong.

“We were able to close the order book after just half a day,” said a spokeswoman. KfW announced that apart from the option, it would not be selling any more Deutsche Post shares for 11 months, ending May 14, 2006.

Deutsche Post has repeatedly said it wishes to hold on to Postbank, which has more than 12 million retail customers and trades over the counters of German post offices. In the past week, Postbank has said it is keen to take over major German building society BHW.

A Deutsche Post spokeswoman said Tuesday her company would continue to hold a majority of Postbank.

The issue was raised by Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann, who had been asked by German newspaper Handelsblatt if he was still interested. “You’ll have to ask Post. The fact that the strategic outlook would be good remains true today,” he replied.