HSH Nordbank Seeks Buyer
German shipping finance provider is optimistic about the prospects of finding a potential buyer for the bank, which will begin a privatization process this year with a deadline in February 2018, says a report in Reuters.
"Despite the difficult market environment, we have very good prospects of selling the bank," the report quoted Oliver Gatzke as telling Boersen Zeitung newspaper.
HSH Nordbank met potential buyers in London in November ahead of the German lender's planned privatisation this year, people close to the matter told Reuters.
HSH's owners - the northern German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg jointly hold 85 percent - have to privatise the bank by the end of February 2018 and have mandated Citi to organise the process, due to start in early 2017.
The Bank was pushing ahead with the upcoming change of ownership; it is putting on a good performance in the Core Bank supported above all by the real estate and corporate clients businesses and is continuing its systematic cost-cutting course.
In the words of Stefan Ermisch, Chief Executive Officer of HSH Nordbank, the Bank is still expecting a profit for the year as a whole despite the unabatedly difficult situation on the shipping markets and is preparing for the impending change of ownership.