Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank are negotiating a merger and the two banks' securities run on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The boost to the purchases comes from the rumors published over the weekend according to which the management of the two groups has agreed to start informal talks for a possible merger. The potential merger would target a fifth of the German credit market, with a mass of about 40 million customers.
In detail, Commerzbank gained 4,6% to 6,9 euros and Deutsche Bank 1,5% to 7,8 euros. The merger, which would give birth to a group with a capitalization of 24 billion, is very popular with German politics (the Government still has a 15% stake in Commerzbank capital deriving from the public bailout), and seems to find favor also in the US fund Cerberus, a shareholder relevant to both institutions. There are, of course, question marks: starting from the fact that rating agencies, investors and the European Central Bank could ask for a capital surplus from the subject that would arise from the possible merger, which could make the operation more difficult.
The mere hypothesis of an operation in progress, very welcome to German politics, has in the meantime revitalized the Frankfurt market and pushed the credit sector to other European markets as well. In Italy in Piazza Affari the banks are on the rise, after the slowdown following the new TLTRO program announced on Thursday 7 March by the ECB. The Ftse Italia banks sector index around 11 is up by 1,2%, Unicredit +1,8%, Intesa Sanpaolo +0,7%,
