US private equity group Cerberus has taken a 3% stake in Deutsche Bank, becoming the fourth-largest shareholder in the German bank. The step sparked speculation that German’s two largest banks – Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank would be merging. Cerberus’s Deutsche stake is worth just under euro 1 billion. The PE firm already owns a 5% stake in Commerzbank. Cerberus said there are attractive long-term opportunities in German retail and corporate banking, because of the country’s robust economy, high savings rate, and a number of other factors. Deutsche and Commerzbank had earlier discussed the idea of a tie-up, but the talks did not yield any results. The tie-up between the two banks would create a national behemoth with a joint market share of 10% in German retail banking. Deutsche is now in the midst of a restructuring after suffering billions of euros of losses in 2015 and 2016. US bank Morgan Stanley has a 6.9% stake in Deutsche.
