Crédit Agricole signs an agreement to acquire German bank IKB

The French group Crédit Agricole announced Monday that it had signed an agreement with the American investment fund Lone Star Funds with a view to repurchasing the entire capital of the German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank, for an undisclosed amount. “The acquisition of IKB will allow Crédit Agricole to immediately achieve significant scale in the German mid-market (ETI) market, with a solidly established franchise with strong legitimacy with the Mittelstand, a large customer base and top-notch teams with in-depth sector expertise,” the banking group said in a press release. The IKB bank, which has around 600 employees, had a balance sheet of 14.3 billion euros and outstanding loans of 8.2 billion euros at the end of 2025. Its net profit amounted to 61 million euros last year.

Europe's largest economy, Germany is central to Crédit Agricole's development strategy in Europe. The group announced on Thursday its intention to launch, at the end of October, a universal banking offering intended for individuals in the country, where it is already present in consumer credit. One of the priorities of the French group, which supports many large German companies, is in particular to develop towards mid-sized companies (which generate between 500 million and 1 billion euros in turnover).

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It intends to acquire customers through savings offers, in particular products corresponding to the pension reforms currently being carried out. In particular, the German government announced in July the introduction of a dose of capitalization in the pension system. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2027.