Deutsche Bank, the biggest bank in Germany, is in preliminary talks with Swiss counterpart Credit Suisse Group over a possible merger, the German stock market newsletter Prior Boerse reported on Wednesday, without revealing its sources.
Prior Boerse said that Deutsche Bank’s new chairman, Josef Ackermann, a former executive of Credit Suisse, has met the Swiss group’s current chairman Lukas Muehlemann on several occasions in
Zurich.
A merger was expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year, it added.
A representative for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the article and Credit Suisse also refused to respond.
Only last week, Deutsche Bank chief Ackermann had said that the German giant was only interested in making acquisitions in private banking as its current priority was to improve its poor market capitalisation.
Deutsche Bank’s current low market capitalisation of around 45-billion euros ($44-billion) would make it a junior partner in an eventual tie-up, destroying value for its shareholders, he argued. – Sapa-AFP