By Ulrike Dauer
FRANKFURT--Germany's Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) Wednesday said it
raised around 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in gross proceeds
from its recent capital increase aimed at weaning the bank off
state aid and aligning key capital ratios better with peers.
As a result of the capital increase, the bank will be able to
redeem the bulk of the remaining state aid it received in early
2009 to keep it afloat following the ill-timed acquisition of
Dresdner Bank.
The bank's key capital ratio under final Basel 3 requirements
will be 8.4% of risk weighted assets at the end of March, up from
7.5% prior to the capital increase.
The capital increase came at a large discount to the market
price. It also required shareholders accept substantial dilution to
their shareholdings, as the bank nearly doubled its outstanding
stock, issuing 556 million new shares at EUR4.50 a share.
Between May 15 and May 28, Commerzbank offered 20 new shares for
every 21 existing shares held. Shareholders exercised 99.7% of
their subscription rights.
Commerzbank said some 1.7 million new shares not subscribed and
363,761 new shares for which subscription rights were excluded were
sold in the market.
The move allows the bank to fully repay the remaining EUR1.6
billion in non-voting shares, known as "silent participation,"
still held by the German government's SoFFin financial markets
stabilization fund, and the EUR750 million in non-voting shares
held by Allianz SE (ALV.XE).
The German government participated in the capital hike, but pays
for the new shares with shares it holds in Commerzbank.
Subsequently, the government's stake in the bank, which it holds in
addition to the non-voting shares, drops to 17% from the previous
blocking minority of 25% plus one share.
The new shares have full dividend rights as of January 2013,
should Commerzbank be in a position to resume a dividend payment
for 2013.
Deutsche Bank, Citi and HSBC agreed to fully underwrite the
capital increase volume.
This is the bank's fifth capital increase in just four
years.
By comparison, larger peer Deutsche Bank AG (DB) recently raised
EUR2.96 billion in the capital market, above the targeted EUR2.8
billion.
Write to Ulrike Dauer at ulrike.dauer@dowjones.com
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