Bank consolidation in Germany: Who is buying whom?

The Dutch bank ABN Amro has just bought the small, traditional German bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lamp. Last year, the French bank Crédit Mutuel, already active in this country with Targobank, bought the Oldenburgische Landesbank from the financial investor Apollo. The real estate financier Aareal Bank, the former HSH Nordbank and IKB are now up for sale. All three banks belong to financial investors. The prospective buyers almost always include the public-sector Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba), which, however, was stymied in the past by some of its owners, the savings banks, and had to call off the purchase of Aareal Bank, but had previously boldly approached Dexia and DVB. Now the Helaba board, with the state of Hesse as the owner behind it, is once again interested in making an acquisition.

Deutsche Bank lets IKB pass

IKB, known as the first German disaster in the financial and banking crisis almost 20 years ago and a recognized financier of medium-sized businesses, has been in the shop window for 18 years. The American financial investor Lone Star has been the owner there for a long time. Private equity is known for selling its investments after five years at the latest. Even if this rarely works at the moment (keyword: “exit traffic jam”), 18-year holding periods are unusual.

What makes IKB attractive to the Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen and foreign banks like Crédit Agricole right now? Is it the ongoing banking consolidation in Europe, the pursuit of size and the associated cost advantages, which no one embodies as much as the Italian bank Unicredit, whose boss Andrea Orcel is equally consistently pursuing his takeover plan for Commerzbank and acquisitions in Italy?

Deutsche Bank boss Christian Sewing is at least taking a different approach. He relies on growth through his own resources, which may have something to do with the fact that Deutsche Bank would still rarely be more than the junior partner in a possible bank merger. But smaller acquisitions such as the British investment service provider Numis in 2023 are also exceptions. Sewing is clearly hoping to capitalize on the Unicredit attack, which could potentially paralyze Commerzbank, by winning customers from it. IKB, on the other hand, lets Deutsche Bank pass, even though it wants to grow in the corporate customer business. And Commerzbank, which before the financial crisis was interested in almost all acquisition opportunities from Sparkasse Stralsund to OLB and then fell out with Dresdner Bank in 2009, ruled out acquisitions from the start as a poison pill to ward off the takeover.

You can call that discouraged or you can call it consistent. In any case, they didn't take advantage of possible opportunities on the home market and shouldn't complain later that there weren't any opportunities. Foreign banks and Helaba have shown the way.