Deutsche Bank AG wants to be ready to do deals even though its strategy doesn’t depend on it, according to the chairman.
The German lender remains open to alternatives for growth including M&A, Supervisory Board Chairman Alexander Wynaendts said at an event hosted by the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Paris on Wednesday. However, regulatory and political conditions for consolidation are not met yet, he said.
“We need to have a strategy that is not dependent on M&A,” Wynaendts said. But “we as an institution want and will be ready for these situations if and when they arise.”
Deutsche Bank earlier this year bought UK corporate broker Numis in a transaction that was the German lender’s largest in over a decade. The purchase was part of the bank’s strategy to invest in capital-light businesses.
While Europe’s bankers have long talked about the need for bigger banks, very few large deals have taken place recently, especially not cross-border ones. The takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS Group AG earlier this year was a government-engineered rescue.
