As of: February 15, 2024, 10:41 a.m
By: Andreas Jäger
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The federal government is increasing its stake in Commerzbank.
© Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
The federal government is not taking part in Commerzbank's ongoing share buyback program - and is thereby increasing its share.
A sale would probably not be profitable at the moment anyway.
Meanwhile, the bank presented new record figures for the past financial year.
Frankfurt – The federal government tends to spend significantly more money than it has.
This led to some problems when preparing the budget for 2024.
Which is why a sale of the Commerzbank shares was apparently examined during the budget discussions, as the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
reported at the time.
A sale of the shares had already been discussed from time to time.
The state saved Commerzbank from bankruptcy in 2009
Now the situation is different: Commerzbank is currently running a share buyback program in which the state is not participating.
This means: Because there will be fewer shares in circulation, the shareholding will automatically increase.
Probably from the current 15.75 percent to around 16.5 percent - this is reported by the
Handelsblatt
with reference to financial circles.
The state has held the shares in Commerzbank since January 2009 - a state investment in a private bank was a novelty in German history at the time.
The federal government bought 25 percent plus one share to protect Commerzbank from bankruptcy as a result of the financial crisis.
And although the shareholding has reduced over the years, the state remains the bank's largest individual shareholder.
Three billion euros for the shareholders
Selling the Commerzbank shares would probably not be profitable at the moment anyway.
The financial institution's share price recently fluctuated between ten and eleven euros.
As the federal government announced in 2019, the price per share would have to be at least 26 euros in order to end the stabilization measure without any losses.
Meanwhile, Commerzbank presented its business figures on Thursday morning - with a record profit in 2023. This even exceeded the very good figures from 2022.
Due to the change in interest rates, the annual surplus rose from a good 1.4 billion euros to just over 2.2 billion euros.
The board wants to increase the net result to around 3.4 billion euros by 2027.
There is reason to be happy for the shareholders, including the state: the bank has earmarked a total of three billion euros for dividends and share buybacks for the 2022 to 2024 financial years.