On Wednesday, Deutsche Bank said that it had reached a settlement with numerous former Postbank shareholders who had filed a lawsuit, claiming they were taken advantage of during the German banking giant’s 2010 acquisition.
Based on a proposal of 31 euros ($34) per share, Deutsche Bank claimed to have struck settlements with “more than 80 plaintiffs representing almost 60 percent of the total claims in the litigation.”
The biggest single plaintiff, who accounted for “roughly one-third of all the claims,” was one of the plaintiffs who consented to a settlement, the bank said in a statement.
The bank estimates that the agreement will have a beneficial impact of 430 million euros on its operating earnings for the third quarter. The arrangement will cost 45 percent of the 1.3 billion euros put aside for the litigation in April.
The former shareholders filed a complaint, claiming that their shares, which they had purchased for 25 euros apiece, were devalued as a result of Deutsche Bank’s acquisition of Postbank.
In April, a Cologne tribunal suggested that there might be merit to some of the claims, which prompted Deutsche Bank to step up talks with the former Postbank shareholders.
In the second quarter of 2024, Deutsche Bank experienced its first quarterly loss in four years due to the lawsuit provision.
