Deutsche Bank kicks off its €8bn rights issue on Tuesday as German lender attempts to bolster its capital
Deutsche Bank announced today it is due to press go on its €8bn (£6.9bn) rights issue on Tuesday, as the German banking giant tries to shore up its capital.
The Frankfurt-headquartered lender announced a slew of plans to improve its capital position earlier this month, including, in addition to the rights issue, holding onto its Postbank division, streamlining its business model and listing a stake in Deutsche Asset Management.
The bank has said the issue of 687.5m new shares will run from 21 March to 6 April, with investors being offered a one new share for two existing shares deal on their current shares so not to dilute their stake. The subscription price for the shares has been set at €11.65.
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According to the statement the bank issued to initially announce the rights issue, it is being underwritten by various other banks, including Credit Suisse, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, and UniCredit.
However, the bank added today the underwriting syndicate has now been increased to 30.
The bank also said in its initial announcement it believes the plans will allow it to target a fully-loaded common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio safely above 13 per cent and to pay a competitive dividend from 2018 onwards.
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By comparison, the lender's CET 1 ratio at the end of 2016 stood at 11.9 per cent and no dividend was announced for last year.
The capital position of Deutsche Bank, which announced a €1.4bn loss for 2016 and a €6.8bn loss for 2015, was called into question last autumn when it was revealed the firm could be facing a fine of as much as $14bn (£11.3bn) from the US Department of Justice for mis-selling mortgage-backed securities.
The bank settled the penalty for $7.2bn in January.
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Deutsche Bank has also slashed its staff's bonuses for the year, which consist of an individual bonus based on whether an employee has hit their targets and a bonus from a group pool calculated on the firm's financial performance.
Back in January, it announced anybody with vice president, director or managing director in their job title would not be receiving their individual bonus, a move which will affect one in four staff. Last week, Morning Wire revealed the bank had also halved the amount of the payout bankers could be expecting from the group bonus pool.