Commerzbank acquires comdirect equity stake and holds more than 90 percent of comdirect

Commerzbank acquires a block of comdirect shares from Petrus Advisers
Investment threshold of more than 90 percent for comdirect squeeze-out under merger law reached
Zielke: “Important step to quickly and efficiently execute the integration of our successful direct banking subsidiary"

Commerzbank AG will acquire an equity stake in comdirect bank Aktiengesellschaft ("comdirect") from institutional investor Petrus Advisers Ltd. through its subsidiary Commerzbank Inlandsbanken Holding GmbH. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

Once the transaction has been completed, Commerzbank will hold more than 90 percent of the shares of comdirect. Meaning that Commerzbank has reached the required investment threshold for the merger of comdirect into Commerzbank by means of a squeeze-out under merger law. In the course of the targeted squeeze-out, comdirect shareholders will receive a cash compensation for their shares. “With the increase of our comdirect stake, we have laid the basis for a swift merger of comdirect into Commerzbank. This is an important step to quickly and efficiently execute the integration of our successful direct banking subsidiary and realise significant synergies. This is a key component of our Commerzbank 5.0 strategy. With our strong multi-channel bank we will offer comdirect’s excellent brokerage services to all Commerzbank customers,” says Martin Zielke, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank.

By integrating comdirect, Commerzbank aims to draw on comdirect’s strong digital expertise and innovative capability for the benefit of all Group customers in future. The integration will also give comdirect the opportunity to scale up its offering through Commerzbank. For the customers of comdirect, the usual product and service quality should be maintained and in the future they will also benefit from Commerzbank's branch presence. In addition to the strategic advantages of a merger, Commerzbank will realise significant synergy potential as a result of the integration.

About Commerzbank

Commerzbank is a leading international commercial bank with branches and offices in nearly 50 countries. The Bank’s two business segments – Private and Small-Business Customers and Corporate Clients – offer a comprehensive portfolio of financial services precisely tailored to their customers’ needs. Commerzbank transacts approximately 30% of Germany's foreign trade and is the market leader in German corporate banking. The Bank offers its sector expertise to its corporate clients in Germany and abroad and is a leading provider of capital market products. Its subsidiaries, comdirect in Germany and mBank in Poland, are two of the world’s most innovative online banks. With approximately 800 branches going forward, Commerzbank has one of the densest branch networks in Germany. The Bank serves more than 11 million private and small-business customers nationwide and over 70,000 corporate clients, multinationals, financial service providers, and institutional clients worldwide. Its Polish subsidiary mBank S.A. has around 5.6 million private and corporate customers, predominantly in Poland, but also in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2018, Commerzbank generated gross revenues of €8.6 billion with approximately 49,000 employees.

Disclaimer and Forward-Looking Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. In this release, these statements concern inter alia the expected future business of Commerzbank, efficiency gains and expected synergies, expected growth prospects and other opportunities for an increase in value of Commerzbank as well as expected future financial results, restructuring costs and other financial developments and information. These forward-looking statements are based on the management’s current plans, expectations, estimates and projections. They are subject to a number of assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from any future results and developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include the conditions in the financial markets in Germany, in Europe, in the USA and other regions from which Commerzbank derives a substantial portion of its revenues and in which Commerzbank holds a substantial portion of its assets, the development of asset prices and market volatility, especially due to the ongoing European debt crisis, potential defaults of borrowers or trading counterparties, the implementation of its strategic initiatives to improve its business model, the reliability of its risk management policies, procedures and methods, risks arising as a result of regulatory change and other risks. Forward-looking statements therefore speak only as of the date they are made. Commerzbank has no obligation to update or release any revisions to the forward-looking statements contained in this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.