HSH Nordbank sale to be decided on Wednesday

The report cited a spokesperson for the ministry of finance for the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, who said the ministry will recommend the sale subject to certain conditions.

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

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 owns a 5.1% in the bank through nine trusts, and the remaining 94.9% is held by four institutions ultimately owned by the federal states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. The PE firm initially acquired a stake in 2006 when it led a consortium to acquire WestLB's 24.1% stake in 2006 for a transaction value of €1.26bn. 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 the end of February 2018.

HSH Nordbank has total assets of €76.5bn and generated net income of €201m before tax for the financial year ending September 2017. 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
• Financials
• DACH
• HSH Nordbank
• JC Flowers
• Cerberus Capital Management
• Germany