Depfa agrees €5.6bn takeover
Depfa, a German bank, is based in the IFSC for tax purposes. It set up its corporate head office in Dublin in 2002 and specialises in lending to local authorities and financing public infrastructure projects.
Its board of directors includes former Central Bank governor Maurice O’Connell. It employs around 200 people in Ireland.
Shareholders in Depfa will get 6.80 in cash and 0.189 Hypo Real Estate share for every Depfa share held. This puts a total value of €16.14 on Depfa shares, which is a 17% premium to its closing value last week and a 19% premium to its average price over the last three months.
Gerhard Bruckermann, the chairman and chief executive of Depfa, said: “The combination of Depfa and HRE will provide access for both businesses to new customers, products and opportunities for expansion and growth and will create opportunities for customers and staff as the combined group realises the benefits of the combination’s expected impact on its core markets.”
The combined group expects annual savings of around €210 million, though it is not thought redundancies will be required.
The bank said a higher capitalisation will increase the large loan exposure limit of the group from €1.6bn to more than €2.6bn.
The takeover will add around €40m in pre-tax profits to HRE this year.
Meanwhile, Depfa released first half results yesterday showing a 9% decline in net profits to €249m. Net interest income fell 8% to €101m.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
