Cerberus, JC Flowers to acquire HSH Nordbank

German daily Der Tagesspiegel reported that an informal agreement had been in place for several weeks for the consortium to take over the bank.

HSH Nordbank confirmed it had received final bids from financial investors at the beginning of January. Bidders were thought to include Socrates Capital, Apollo, Cerberus and JC Flowers.

The bank is jointly owned by the federal states of Hamburg and Schleswig Holstein, and must be privatised by February 2018 due to a ruling by the European commission.

JC Flowers already owns a stake in the bank after leading a consortium to jointly acquire WestLB's 24.1% stake in 2006 for a €1.26bn transaction value. The GP subsequently took part in a capital increase in 2008, in which it is thought to have invested €300m.

In May 2016, the European Commission approved the €3bn capital increase granted to HSH Nordbank by the federal states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein in June 2013 to stabilise the bank.

The decision was based on a commitment to reprivatise without further state aid, and requires the sale agreements to be signed by February 2018.

The bank arranged the refinancing of KKR's €2.95bn acquisition of car park operator Q-Park with a €1.4bn revolving credit facility in November 2017. 

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• DACH
• Financials
• Germany
• HSH Nordbank
• JC Flowers
• KKR