Reuters: Regulatory News: UPDATE 1-Commerzbank pulls the plug on ship financing

Reuters: Regulatory News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 1-Commerzbank pulls the plug on ship financing Jun 26th 2012, 19:46 Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:46pm EDT * Ship finance, commercial real estate to be wound down * Step is part of group review, more details to come in autumn FRANKFURT, June 26 (Reuters) - German bank Commerzbank said it would wind up its ship finance and commercial real estate units as stricter liquidity requirements force it to cut back on capital intensive activities. Commerzbank, which has twice been bailed out by German taxpayers, said the decision marks the first step in a review of all its business areas, with more measures to be announced in the autumn. With the crisis in the shipping market dragging into a fourth year, some ship lenders are seizing ships to protect the value of their loans, while others are cutting the size of their books. Commerzbank, Germany's second biggest lender, had previously said it aimed to cut the bank's 20 billion euro ($25 billion) shipping portfolio by a quarter. Commerzbank said both commercial real estate and ship financing would be placed into its non-core assets unit (NCA), with the two areas to be entirely reduced "in the course of time". The NCA unit is also home to some activities of ailing property lender Eurohypo such as public finance and part of its commercial real estate segment. Commerzbank, which got clearance from the European Commission to wind down Eurohypo in March after unsuccessful efforts to sell it, had previously planned to continue a small part of Eurohypo's commercial property business. "Following the decision to significantly expand the NCA segment, the responsibilities on the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank will also be restructured," Commerzbank added, while confirming its targets for the current business year. The group said real estate financing would still be offered to private and corporate customers but would be integrated into the core bank. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions