Commerzbank announces Dresdner plans

Source: Exec Digital UK

Date :01/09/2008 09:25:31

More than 9,000 jobs are to be axed as part of Commerzbank's takeover of Dresdner Bank, announced today, September 1.

The losses are part of a cost-cutting plan and are expected to save over £1.6 billion. About 9,000 job losses are expected from the combined 67,000 labour force, with about 2,500 to be cut outside Germany.

The bank promised that the job cuts would be conducted with a “socially-responsible approach”.

Commerzbank will buy Dresdner from Allianz for £8 billion in two steps, taking 60 percent this year and the rest in 2009 to create a rival to flagship Deutsche Bank in Europe’s biggest economy.

Much of the purchase price will be paid to Allianz in the form of shares, leaving Europe’s biggest insurer with a stake of almost 30 percent in the new Commerzbank.

The deal is a fraction of the price Allianz paid for Dresdner near the height of the dot-com bubble in 2001.

Separately, Commerzbank announced a change on its board of managing directors. Bernd Knobloch, who has been on the board since 2006 and runs the bank's Europhypo real estate lending business, will step down at the end of this month. He will be replaced by Stefan Schmittmann.