Deutsche Bank mulling Postbank purchase

Deutsche Bank AG is planning a last-minute bid to acquire Deutsche Post's Postbank unit for six billion euros prior to the latter's planned June listing, a German newspaper reported on Sunday.
The Welt am Sonntag cited supervisory board sources as saying take-over talks were being held with the government, which controls roughly 62 percent of the Postbank parent company.
Banking sources said last week Deutsche Bank had reopened talks with the government into buying all or part of Postbank.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment, while a finance ministry spokesman said "we're not getting involved", when asked whether negotiations were held with Deutsche over Postbank. Deutsche Post reiterated on Sunday it planned to retain majority control over its retail banking unit.
In an interview with Handelsblatt to be published on Monday, Chief Executive Josef Ackermann said Deutsche Bank would not stand in the way of a German banking consolidation.
"It won't fail because of us," he said, after previously saying in February that Deutsche would not participate in a German merger and acquisition wave.
He also added that acquisitions in the German savings bank industry were possible, in principle.
"Before it comes to take-overs here though, savings and private banks must get closer through co-operations. We can't afford to work against ourselves in Germany," Ackermann said.
With the acquisition of Postbank's 11.5 million clients, Deutsche Bank would more than double its own customer base and reach a market share of nearly 17 percent.
"Yes, we're working on it," a supervisory board member was quoted in Welt am Sonntag as saying. "If an extraordinary board meeting is called soon, then you know what's coming."
A decision could come in the next two weeks, the weekly paper reported, in which case Postbank's 2.5 billion euro initial public offering on June 21 would be cancelled.
Several other German newspapers and magazines including Der Spiegel reported similar plans for Deutsche to buy out Postbank, despite opposition from Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann.
"Nowhere in the world is there a bank without its own home. An acquisition in Germany is therefore the correct step to take," Deutsche Bank Supervisory Board Chairman Rolf Breuer said in Der Spiegel. Once it beefs up its position in the domestic market, then "the bank can expand abroad again".
The acquisition plans could increase tensions within the bank. Ackermann is said to favour a European rather than a German solution by exploring potential link-ups with Swiss bank Credit Suisse or the Dutch ABN Amro.
Banking sources said last week that divisions had emerged between Ackermann's lieutenants on the executive committee and the bank's management and supervisory boards as to the goals and strategy of Deutsche going forward.