Capital News

On 28 June Commerzbank increased its capital by 176,553,636 shares or euros. With the help of Deutsche Bank, 128.3 million shares which it had issued instead of cash payments to the managers were placed on the market at €1.27 each. The measure would strengthen the Bank‘s hard-core capital with an eye to the stringent regulatory requirements of Basel 3, said the second-largest German bank. The federal government, even after the recent capital increase, remains the biggest individual shareholder, with slightly more than 25 percent. Martin Blessing had announced the measure in January. The Commerzbank CEO sees himself confirmed in his course; the high approval rate of employees was a strong message of solidarity, he said.

On 17 July LANXESS started a buyback of 220,000 of its own shares in order to issue them to employees. According to indications from the chemical group on 16 July the purchase price (excluding incidental costs) should not be more than ten percent above or below the market price determined on the same day in the opening auction of the Xetra trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The share buyback was concluded on 27 July. Overall, the programme should cost LANXESS about twelve million euros.