The second German bank will she end up in the arms of a competing French or Italian ? What was only a hypothesis now becomes a possibility. The names of UniCredit, BNP Paribas and Crédit agricole are now circulating openly to put the hand on the ancient Commerzbank, founded in 1870 by the merchants of Hamburg.
The speculations were strengthened, Tuesday 24 October, as the british daily Financial Times has revealed that the bank has hired Goldman Sachs and Rothschild to advise it on the possible scenarios of recovery by a foreign institution. Commerzbank, rescued in 2009 by the State, who still holds 15 % of its capital, has never really recovered from the crisis financial. For the past eight years, it continues to reduce its balance sheet and its workforce to try to restore profitability.
The public banks local difficulty
Until now, it was rather with Deutsche Bank (DB) that the observers believed detect a romance. The engaged couple were finally married in front of the questions about the dangers of such an alliance between two lame. The first bank in the country is moved to the side of the disaster at the end of 2016, and investors continue to question the sustainability of its economic model, while its credit of trust is initiated from its customers.
The two schools will suffer in the final of the same evil : after that they have experienced decades of expansion abroad and in the investment bank, the financial crisis has brutally put an end to their ambitions. They have had to reduce their risks and fall back on their domestic market : private individuals and, especially, medium-sized companies export, the famous ” Mittelstand “, which is the power of capitalism German.
But this market is already highly competitive because of the multitude of public banks local (Sparkassen)…
