Hedge Fund Reader : Commerzbank becomes a target of Hedge Funds

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August 28, 2005

Commerzbank becomes a target of Hedge Funds

Germany’s corporate kingdom have been attacked and seams to been brought at its knees by the new-age corporate raiders-the Hedge Funds. The latest victim has been the Commerzbank AG, Germany’s third largest bank which has witnessed quite some activity at the counter of late. Toscafund and Lansdowne Partners, London-based hedge funds seam to be making aggressive moves into Commerzbank’s counter. Although, the company states they are among a number of hedge funds and mainstream investors to have acquired stakes of up to 2 per cent and does not even disclose them as investors in the company. However this is not the first time it has had to encounter such an issue, Commerzbank territory in 2001 had been infringed upon, by a hedge fund called Cobra a privately-owned corporate raider who had made attempts to engineer the banks sale. Hedge funds have laid their bets to be acquired by European banks like BNP-Paribas, Royal Bank of Scotland or some Spanish banks. After, the rumored deal of the acquisition of HVB, the Germany’s second largest bank by Italy's UniCredito. Of late the hedge funds have been making aggressive inroads in the German Stock Exchange Deutsche Börse's and DaimlerChrysler, the carmaker. MSN Money Reports:

Since announcing solid second-quarter results on August 3, Commerzbank's popularity with investors has surged, with up to 20m shares – four times the normal volume – changing hands on several days. The shares have been the best performer of all 30 stocks on the Dax blue-chip index this month.

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August 28, 2005 in Gossip & Scandal, Strategy | Permalink