ouwebeursrot schreef:
[quote=elisabeth12]
en toch wordt dresdner bank dit weekend overgenomen
[/quote]
Bedoel je dit soms:
Allianz Is Nearing the End Of Its Dresdner Experiment [HZPYSPX]
Publication Date: Saturday August 30, 2008
Business/Financial Desk; Section C; Page 2; Column
c. 2008 New York Times Company
By CARTER DOUGHERTY
FRANKFURT -- With the planned sale of Dresdner Bank to Commerzbank, Allianz is
set to abandon the biggest experiment in German finance of the last decade in
favor of a global trend of the times: focusing on core competencies.
The boards of both Allianz and Commerzbank are scheduled to meet on Sunday
after a months-long process that included serious discussions about selling
Dresdner to China Development Bank, a state infrastructure lender.
Allianz said Friday that it was in "advanced talks" about the future of
Dresdner but cautioned that the negotiations "may or may not" lead to an
agreement.
A deal to sell Dresdner, which analysts have estimated is worth up to 9
billion euros, or $13 billion, would reverse a seven-year novelty in which
Allianz bought and ran a bank as a means to distribute its insurance products.
Europe is home to many "bancassurance" companies -- banks that also sell
insurance -- but Allianz took an ill-fated leap into what it came to call
"assurbanking."
A combination of Commerzbank with Dresdner, by contrast, would unite two banks
that share the same business and, often, the same clients in corporate Germany.
"It's about scale," said Simon Adamson, a banking analyst with CreditSights in
London. "It's an old-fashioned, in-the-same-market merger."
A deal would leave unclear the fate of Dresdner Kleinwort, the investment bank
linked to Dresdner Bank. The investment bank was always regarded as a drag on
the Allianz-Dresdner merger, with no clear role at an insurance company, and no
useful distribution channels.
Dresdner Kleinwort has no investment bank at Commerzbank, which largely
withdrew from investment banking in 2004 after a humbling attempt to build up a
proprietary trading business. It now focuses its capital markets business on
serving private and corporate clients.
Allianz has always planned to come out of the deal with a stake in
Commerzbank, though it will be below 30 percent, said a person with direct
knowledge of the talks but who asked not to be identified because the talks had
not concluded. This would ensure that Allianz could still see its insurance
products distributed via the combined bank's branches, the person said.
Together, Commerzbank and Dresdner would create the second-largest bank in
Germany by market capitalization, after Deutsche Bank. But it would be different
from Deutsche, which made its name in the high-profile world of investment
banking.
Both Commerzbank and Dresdner have major retail-banking franchises in Germany,
with Dresdner having a particular strength among affluent urban customers.
Commerzbank, in turn, has a strong corporate banking business, especially among
the Mittelstand, the small and medium-size companies that are the backbone of
the German economy.
Commerzbank and Dresdner executives are also negotiating for the support of
the largest German services union, Ver.di, which holds a number of seats on the
boards of both companies, as is customary in Germany.
"We're going to judge this on the basis of whether there are employment
guarantees and guarantees for the places of work," said Gunter Isemeyer, a
Ver.di spokesman.
With about 800 branches in Germany to Dresdner's 1,000, Commerzbank would be
under heavy pressure to close some and cut jobs. In many main streets in German
cities, Dresdner and Commerzbank branches lie cheek by jowl, a vivid reminder of
how much could be pruned while still serving customers.
A combined Commerzbank-Dresdner would have assets of about 1.1 trillion euros
and would have about 72,000 employees.
The Allianz experiment with Dresdner has had some highs, but mostly lows.
Allianz moved quickly to raise its market share by selling more insurance
through Dresdner bank branches, but efforts to peddle Dresdner bank accounts
through the thousands of Allianz insurance agents proved more difficult. That
process only got under way in earnest in 2005, but profitability really came
only after Dresdner laid off about 16,000 employees.
But like so many other banks, Dresdner got burned by speculating in
mortgage-backed securities with money raised by selling its own commercial
paper.
The company had to bail out an $18.8 billion investment vehicle and
subsequently posted a loss of 964 million euros in the first half of this year.
The prospect of finally shedding a persistent strategic challenge has given a
fillip to Allianz shares, which had suffered this year alongside most other
financial stocks. The shares closed up 20 cents at 114.02 euros Friday.
"Looking back, this was a massive strategic mistake for Allianz," Mr.
Adamson, the analyst at CreditSights, said. "So if they can get rid of it at a
decent price, they are better off."
PHOTO: A Dresdner Bank branch in Munich. If it buys Dresdner, Commerzbank will
be under heavy pressure to close some branches.(PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXANDRA
BEIER/REUTERS)
(END)
30Aug08 08:31 GMT
Source NYT New York Times
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