Rebirth of England.

Chapter 868: European Union Bank
Also in early September, Natixis Bank finally reached a final agreement with the German government on the acquisition of shares in Commerzbank.

Natixis Bank will acquire the German government's 25% stake in Commerzbank for 25 billion euros. The German government acquired these shares by injecting 2009 billion euros into Commerzbank in 18, and also provided corresponding funds when Commerzbank acquired Dresdner Bank later.

However, Natixis's offer represents a 15% premium over Commerzbank's share price before the acquisition, making it a very good deal for the German government, allowing them to make a profit of nearly 30% on their investment.

However, although the completion of this transaction has increased Natixis Bank's shareholding in Commerzbank to 34%, making it the controlling shareholder of Commerzbank, the management of Natixis Bank has also promised the German government that it will repay the debt borrowed by Commerzbank from the German government as soon as possible.

And if the acquisition of Commerzbank eventually goes ahead, there can be no significant cuts to Commerzbank's business - that is, no large-scale layoffs.

After all, under the current circumstances, this is not a situation the German government wants to see.

Currently, with the shares held by DS Group, Standard Chartered Merrill Lynch and William Weber Capital, Barron's side can control nearly 50% of the shares of Commerzbank, and is fully capable of promoting Natixis' overall acquisition of Commerzbank - that is, the merger plan between Natixis and Commerzbank.

After completing the acquisition of the German government's shares in Commerzbank, at the request of Natixis Bank, Commerzbank held a board meeting. At this meeting, Commerzbank adjusted its board of directors. Natixis Bank President Lagarde served as the chairman of Commerzbank and Ashley Weber served as the executive director of Commerzbank.

And at this board meeting, the merger plan between Natixis Bank and Commerzbank was approved.

The merger between the two parties will be carried out by Natixis paying cash or issuing additional shares to the remaining shareholders of Commerzbank.

Currently, the share price of Commerzbank is around 8 euros per share. Other shareholders of Commerzbank can choose to exchange each Commerzbank share they hold for 8.4 euros in cash, or exchange it for Natixis Bank shares at a ratio of 1:1.25.

Currently, Natixis Bank's share price is around 6.7 euros. This was the price when both Natixis Bank and Commerzbank were suspended before the news of their upcoming merger was announced. Because the market itself had speculated about this, both stocks had already risen to a certain extent before that, with the increase exceeding 10%. In comparison, Commerzbank's share price rose more.

Therefore, whether to choose cash or stock exchange depends on whether the shareholders of Commerzbank have confidence in its future development.

In seven days, it will be the deadline for Commerzbank shareholders to make their selections, at which time the two parties will complete the merger.

In the end, about 70% of Commerzbank shareholders outside of Natixis chose to exchange shares.

According to the previous plan, Natixis Bank's partner in this acquisition, Merrill Lynch Investment, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Merrill Lynch Group, will pay the shareholders of Commerzbank who choose cash compensation and receive corresponding exchange shares.

Therefore, Merrill Lynch invested about 19.8 billion euros and obtained 29475 million additional Natixis Bank shares. Together with the approximately 5952 million Commerzbank shares previously held by Merrill Lynch, it can be exchanged for 7440 million Natixis Bank shares...

In this way, Merrill Lynch will be able to obtain a total of 36915 million shares of Natixis Bank.

After the merger is completed, Natixis will be renamed Continental United Bank (CUB), with a total share capital of 32.36 billion shares. Natixis shares originally traded on the Paris Stock Exchange will be converted into Continental United Bank shares at a 1:1 ratio after the reopening.

The shares of Commerzbank, which were originally traded on various German exchanges, as well as in Paris, New York, Vienna, Geneva, Basle, Amsterdam, London, Luxembourg, Antwerp and Brussels, will be changed to shares of Eurobank at a ratio of 1:1.25 after the opening.

After the merger of the two banks, William Weber Capital will hold 15.444 billion shares, and its shareholding in Eurobank will still exceed 47.7%!

Therefore, William Weber Capital will remain the controlling shareholder of Eurofins Bank, Ashley Weber will serve as the chairman of Eurofins Bank, and Lagarde will serve as the president of Eurofins Bank.

Merrill Lynch Investment holds 36915 million shares of Eurofins Bank, accounting for 11.4%, making it the second largest shareholder of Eurofins Bank.

In addition, DS Group also holds approximately 7740 million shares of Eurobank, accounting for approximately 2.3%...

In this way, Barron still controls more than 61% of the shares in Eurobank, although on the surface the bank still has a large number of French and German shareholders...

At the end of September, after Eurobank resumed trading on various stock exchanges, its share price saw a significant increase, from 9 euros when it was suspended to 6.7 euros!

This brings the total market value of Eurobank to nearly 230 billion euros, which puts it not far from the market value of Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank. After all, due to frequent accusations and fines, Deutsche Bank's stock price will fall by more than 2012% in the 10 years starting from 70. Therefore, it is believed that Eurobank will soon surpass Deutsche Bank and become the bank with the highest market value in Germany.

As for France, unfortunately, even after this merger, Eurobank is still far lower than Societe Generale in market value and is still ranked the third largest bank in France.

In any case, both Barron and Ashley Weber are very happy about the successful acquisition of Commerzbank, which means that their financial tentacles have entered another core country of the European Union - Germany.

However, Ashley's due date is more than two months away, so she did not go to Germany. Instead, Christine Lagarde, president of Eurobank, stayed in Frankfurt, Germany, to sort out and reorganize the business of the two banks after the merger.

"After the merger of Natixis and Commerzbank, there is still much work to be done. Although the two banks have some overlapping businesses, they are more complementary. I am very optimistic about the future development of Eurobank..."

In a German financial talk show, Lagarde's style remains undiminished. She said:
"Eurohypo owned by Commerzbank is still the best real estate bank in Europe. Although it was hit hard in the previous crisis, we will optimize the assets in the German market and are optimistic about the recovery of the real estate industry..."

"So you mean to consider selling some of Commerzbank's bad assets, Ms. Lagarde?"

"We will focus on our main businesses. A certain amount of downsizing is necessary to allow us to concentrate our resources and achieve higher profit expectations. We have seen some banks in the UK, such as Standard Chartered Bank, sell some of their non-performing assets after the subprime mortgage crisis, which not only replenished their liquidity but also reduced their burden. Most of these banks are now performing well. I think this approach is worth considering."

(End of this chapter)