BERLIN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The German states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein have finalized the sale of HSH Nordbank to a private investment consortium on Wednesday.
"The money has arrived", Hamburg finance minister Andreas Dressel (SPD) revealed at a press conference hosted with his counterpart in Schleswig-Holstein Monika Heinold (Greens).
Nine months ago, the two states agreed to sell their controlling stakes in HSH Nordbank to the U.S. investment firms Cerberus and J.C. Flowers among other private investors. The sale had been ordered by European Union (EU) competition authorities and marks the first ever successful privatization of a regional government-owned bank in Germany.
Following the formal acquisition of HSH Nordbank for one billion euros (1.13 billion U.S. dollars), the bank will be renamed in Hamburg Commercial Bank from February 2019. A new supervisory board has also been nominated.
HSH Nordbank chief executive officer (CEO) Stefan Ermisch said in a statement that the "successful switch from public-sector to exclusively private-sector shareholders is genuinely new territory in the German banking sector and marks the beginning of a new era for our Bank."
Looking forward, Ermisch announced that he would focus on becoming a "medium-sized, Hamburg-based commercial bank for Germany with a pronounced client orientation" and set a goal to achieve a pre-tax return on equity of at least 8 percent by end of 2021.
According to insiders, the number of bankers will likely fall from currently 1,700 to less than 1,000 over the next 2.5 years, mainly driven by discontinued business from the old Landesbank era, but also from outsourcing substantial parts of IT and implementing classic efficiency programs.
"Privatization is a great achievement, as we avoided the end of the bank and potential loss of all jobs. Now it is time for a fresh start and the practical test", a HSH Nordbank representative told Xinhua after the closing. Enditem
