Commissie keurt staatssteun Duitse Landes-banken goed (en)

<p

The European Commission has authorised, in accordance with the EC Treaty's rules on state aid, capital increases worth a total of some €1.2 billion from their public shareholders for the German Landesbanken HSH Nordbank AG (HSH - €556 million) and Bayern LB (€640 million). The capital increases are aimed at strengthening the core capital of the two Landesbanken. The Commission has also authorised the transfer of a special fund of the Land Hessen as silent participation to Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba). The Commission has concluded that the transactions are in line with the market investor principle and therefore do not constitute state aid within the meaning of Article 87 of the EC Treaty).

"I am satisfied that the conditions of the capital increases and special fund transfer for these three Landesbanken are in line with the market investor principle and constitute a further step towards fair competition in the German banking sector", Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes i said.

The capital increases of HSH and Bayern LB have occurred after the abolition of the public-law guarantee mechanism for Landesbanken on 18th July and after the repayment of state subsidies for HSH and Bayern LB (and five other Landesbanken) ruled illegal by the Commission's decision of 20th October 2004 (see IP/04/1261).

Although the two capital increase cases are similar in many respects, they differ in the amount and the date of the issuing of the capital. On 20 July 2005, the four existing shareholders of HSH, the two Länder Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the Saving Bank Association and WestLB AG injected €556million share capital into HSH. The share capital increase of Bayern LB is to take place in two instalments of €320 million each on 1August 2005 and 1July 2006. Both shareholders, the Land Bavaria and the Bavarian Saving Bank Association participate in equal parts.

The special fund of the Land Hessen will be transferred as unlimited silent participation to Helaba in return for a market based remuneration to generate additional income for the Land Hessen. The transfer does not result in an injection of liquidity or inflow of revenue for Helaba. Nevertheless, the transfer of the fund strengthens Helaba's own-capital basis.

The investments by the public bodies were analysed by the Commission to assess whether the capital was made available on terms which a private investor would find acceptable in providing funds to a comparable private undertaking when the private investor is operating under normal market-economy conditions (i.e. the market economy investor principle).

The Commission's assessment has shown that the expected return on the investments is indeed in conformity with what a private investor would accept and therefore does not constitute state aid.

The Commission will continue to assess other such financial operations in the cases of other German Landesbanken.