Commerzbank sells fund management unit to BNP

Germany's second-biggest bank, Commerzbank, is to sell its Depotbank investment unit managing funds worth 93 billion euros to BNP Paribas, it said on Thursday. Commerzbank declined to give the value of the deal for the unit which managed assets worth the equivalent of $122 billion in April The subsidiary offers services for investment companies and funds such as settling securities transactions and managing assets, the bank said. It employs 80 staff. "All the employees of the Commerzbank business unit have the possibility to move to BNP Paribas," said the German bank, adding that the transaction was subject to approval by relevant authorities. "For Commerzbank the sale is a consequence of the continuous review of the strategic repositioning of the bank," said Chief Operating Officer Frank Annuscheit in a statement. "Depotbank services for investment companies are no longer part of the bank's core business." In the wake of the financial crisis, the German government bailed out Commerzbank in 2008 and again in 2009 with so-called silent participations totalling 16.4 billion euros. In the three months to March, the group booked a net loss of 94 million euros owing to heavy restructuring costs. Last month the bank and employees' representatives reached agreement on cutting over 5,000 jobs during the next three years. One July 15, Commerzbank said it had agreed to sell a huge portfolio of commercial real estate loans in Britain to US bank Wells Fargo and Lone Star Funds, also without disclosing the price. The transaction covers commercial real estate loans totalling five billion euros as well as the entire operational business of Hypothekenbank Frankfurt in Britain.