Deutsche Post still to decide on selling Postbank
Deutsche Post hasn’t decided whether to sell its majority stake in German lender Deutsche Postbank AG as the company considers options for the holding.
Germany’s largest banks have been positioning themselves for takeovers since Deutsche Post, which owns 50 percent plus one share of Postbank, said last year it was assessing a possible sale. German newspaper Handelsblatt cited Postbank CEO Wolfgang Klein as saying in an interview that he expects Deutsche Post to decide on the future of the lender by fall.
Speculation about a sale of the bank has been fueled by a report in Manager Magazin that Frankfurt-based Commerzbank AG and Munich-based insurer Allianz SE made a combined bid for Postbank valued at about 10 billion euros (USD 15.7 billion). Appel declined to comment today on the report. Deutsche Post has started to collect bids for Postbank, Die Welt reported May 23.
The German government wants to be assured that a sale of Postbank, the country’s largest consumer bank by customers, would result in a stronger banking industry, Economy Minister Michael Glos said in a Bloomberg Television interview May 23. The German government controls about 30 percent of Deutsche Post through development bank KfW Group. Commerzbank Chief Executive Officer Martin Blessing said in a separate interview that he “can imagine a lot” in German banking consolidation.
Deutsche Post hasn’t decided whether to sell its majority stake in German lender Deutsche Postbank AG as the company considers options for the holding.
Germany’s largest banks have been positioning themselves for takeovers since Deutsche Post, which owns 50 percent plus one share of Postbank, said last year it was assessing a possible sale. German newspaper Handelsblatt cited Postbank CEO Wolfgang Klein as saying in an interview that he expects Deutsche Post to decide on the future of the lender by fall.
Speculation about a sale of the bank has been fueled by a report in Manager Magazin that Frankfurt-based Commerzbank AG and Munich-based insurer Allianz SE made a combined bid for Postbank valued at about 10 billion euros (USD 15.7 billion). Appel declined to comment today on the report. Deutsche Post has started to collect bids for Postbank, Die Welt reported May 23.
The German government wants to be assured that a sale of Postbank, the country’s largest consumer bank by customers, would result in a stronger banking industry, Economy Minister Michael Glos said in a Bloomberg Television interview May 23. The German government controls about 30 percent of Deutsche Post through development bank KfW Group. Commerzbank Chief Executive Officer Martin Blessing said in a separate interview that he “can imagine a lot” in German banking consolidation.
Appel was speaking today after a press conference to mark the opening of an air-freight hub at the Leipzig/Halle airport in eastern Germany. The facility is the DHL Express unit’s new main base in Europe, replacing a hub in Brussels.
The company built the 300 million-euro base to exploit growing demand for deliveries of express packages. Global air freight traffic rose 4.4 percent in the three months through March from a year earlier, driven by Middle Eastern and North American markets, the International Air Transport Association trade group said May 2.
