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(Bloomberg) --
State-controlled German lender
NordLB is seeking to sell a stake of around 30 percent to a new investor as it raises cash to plug a financing gap, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The regional German lender will ask potential buyers to place indicative bids by Oct. 8, and will also ask existing owners to help fill the gap, the people said. They asked not to be named as the plan is not yet public. The exact size of the capital injection will depend in part on a separate plan to sell bad loans, they added.
Germany’s public-sector banks are struggling to survive under pressure from low interest rates and tightened European Union laws on bailouts. A deal could result in NordLB
following Hamburg-based HSH Nordbank into the private sector, or in the further consolidation of the so-called “Landesbanken”, which are typically owned by regional governments and local savings banks.
Buyout firms
Cerberus Capital Management and
Apollo Global Management as well as Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg (LBBW) are among the interested parties, the people said. Bringing in private owners, even as minority shareholders, would require the bank to change its legal form from an institution under public law to a joint stock company.
Loan Sale
NordLB began marketing some 2 billion euros in soured shipping loans to prospective buyers last month, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg at the time. Any loan disposals would likely be at a discount to book value and would trigger further writedowns, eroding NordLB’s capital base, the people said.
Shipping loans in particular have been a problem at NordLB for years, peaking in 2016 when it posted a loss of 2 billion euros. That was due in part to bad loans made by Bremer Landesbank, which NordLB finally merged with in 2017 in order to stop it failing. In all, NordLB had 7.7 billion euros in bad loans at the end of June. Chief Executive Officer
Thomas Buerkle said in April he wants to get it below 5 billion euros by year-end 2019.
If the bank doesn’t complete the current sale of bad loans for any reason, it would still need to raise equity to sustain its capital levels in future. NordLB has not challenged past reports suggesting it will need around 3 billion euros in equity.
The deal comes as euro-area banks finalize submissions to regulators for this year’s stress test.
Bailout Restrictions
NordLB received a 1.67 billion-euro recapitalization from its state owners in 2012, under
strict EU provisions on state aid. It has struggled to keep capital at acceptable levels since then because its shipping portfolio has deteriorated so much. Any fresh injection of cash by its government owners would need to convince EU watchdogs that it’s commercially justifiable.
The state of Lower Saxony owns 59.1 percent of NordLB, while Saxony-Anhalt owns 5.6 percent. The rest is split between the savings banks’ associations in those two states and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
NordLB said in a statement that the bank and its shareholders are “considering a range of options to prepare the bank for rising regulatory requirements.” It said no decision had been taken yet regarding the need for an outside investor. Representatives of LBBW, Apollo and Cerberus didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is advising NordLB on the deal, while
Barclays Plc is advising the state of Lower Saxony, people familiar with the matter have said.