Deutsche Bank and Lloyds TSB only remaining bidders for Deutsche Postbank
Deutsche Bank AG. and Lloyds TSB Group Plc. are the only remaining suitors interested in taking over Deutsche Postbank AG. as the German retail bank moves on to disclose selected data on its business to the potential buyers on Monday, a person familiar with the procedure said.
The source said that Postbank has adopted a relatively restrictive stance in supplying information in the so-called data room, a metaphoric term for divulging privileged information in an advanced stage of the selling process.
Deutsche Post World Net AG., which owns 50 percent plus one share in Postbank, last Wednesday said it has entered into a “more intensive phase” of negotiations over the future of its banking subsidiary.
A spokesman for the German postal-services giant said at the time that potential buyers would not be given a specific set of data and that “individual talks” would be held instead. Deutsche Post is 31 percent-controlled by the German government through its development bank KfW Bankengruppe.
German securities trading laws would require a buyer of Deutsche Post’s majority stake to also make a mandatory offer for the remaining Postbank shares in the free float.
Recent media reports said that companies interested in Postbank, Germany’s biggest retail lender, also include Banco Santander of Spain, BNP Paribas of France and Belgian lender Fortis.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Boersen-Zeitung last Wednesday cited financial sources as saying that Deutsche Post eliminated Commerzbank AG. and Allianz SE.’s Dresdner Bank unit from the list of potential buyers.
Shares in Postbank were last week buoyed by speculation among traders that Lloyds TSB could be willing to pay as much as 11 billion euros for Postbank.
The lender currently has a market value of about about 9.1 billion euros.
Deutsche Bank AG. and Lloyds TSB Group Plc. are the only remaining suitors interested in taking over Deutsche Postbank AG. as the German retail bank moves on to disclose selected data on its business to the potential buyers on Monday, a person familiar with the procedure said.
The source said that Postbank has adopted a relatively restrictive stance in supplying information in the so-called data room, a metaphoric term for divulging privileged information in an advanced stage of the selling process.
Deutsche Post World Net AG., which owns 50 percent plus one share in Postbank, last Wednesday said it has entered into a “more intensive phase” of negotiations over the future of its banking subsidiary.
A spokesman for the German postal-services giant said at the time that potential buyers would not be given a specific set of data and that “individual talks” would be held instead. Deutsche Post is 31 percent-controlled by the German government through its development bank KfW Bankengruppe.
German securities trading laws would require a buyer of Deutsche Post’s majority stake to also make a mandatory offer for the remaining Postbank shares in the free float.
Recent media reports said that companies interested in Postbank, Germany’s biggest retail lender, also include Banco Santander of Spain, BNP Paribas of France and Belgian lender Fortis.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Boersen-Zeitung last Wednesday cited financial sources as saying that Deutsche Post eliminated Commerzbank AG. and Allianz SE.’s Dresdner Bank unit from the list of potential buyers.
Shares in Postbank were last week buoyed by speculation among traders that Lloyds TSB could be willing to pay as much as 11 billion euros for Postbank.
The lender currently has a market value of about about 9.1 billion euros.
Postbank declined to comment on the matter, as did Lloyds TSB and Deutsche Bank.
A spokeswoman for Deutsche Post reiterated last week’s statement that talks on Postbank have intensified but she would not comment further on the procedure.
