Deutsche Bank Wins Dismissal of Lawsuits by Postbank Investors

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG won’t have to pay former Deutsche Postbank AG shareholders more money for the takeover of the retail lender a decade ago, according to a court ruling Wednesday.

The 25 euros-per-share offer was adequate because the two lenders weren’t acting in concert, a Cologne appeals court said, dismissing two lawsuits that had been hanging over Deutsche Bank for years.

While the claimants were seeking 53 million euros ($67 million), investors are still trying to get payouts totaling 700 million euros in separate, pending cases. The Wednesday ruling is likely to influence those lawsuits.

Deutsche Bank spent more than 6 billion euros to buy Postbank. Shareholders were paid under a mandatory takeover offer made in 2010, but the plaintiffs said the lender should have made a bid in early 2009, when Postbank’s share price was much higher.

The lawsuit was led by Effecten-Spiegel, which started the litigation in 2010 -- a day after the deadline for Deutsche Bank’s takeover elapsed. It initially lost in both the Cologne lower court and the appeals court. The company was able to overturn the rulings in 2014 at Germany’s top court, winning a retrial. The case then went back to the Cologne Appeals Court.

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