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BERLIN - Commerzbank AG chief executive Klaus-Peter Mller is considering a sale of the bank's 4% stake in French lender Crdit Lyonnais as part of his restructuring drive.
"Partnerships are no longer really in vogue," Mller told the French newspaper La Tribune in an interview published April 10, and added that the bank's stake in Crdit Lyonnais could be divested. "If there's a reorganization of the capital of Crdit Lyonnais, then we would no longer wish to be an important partner."
Mller's statements were confirmed Wednesday by a Commerzbank spokesman, who said the willingness to divest the bank's shareholdings was part of the new policy that Mller has adopted. "It's not the shares that really count in the banking relationship you maintain with each other," he noted. "That's what we said when SCH said it was considering cutting its stake in Commerzbank too. Now it's done it," he added, referring to Santander Central Hispano SA's announcement Wednesday that had sold 1% of its stake in Commerzbank in the market, to bring its holding down to 3.7%. "We had, and still have, a good banking relationship with SCH. Whenever we need something in Spain, they are there for us," he said.
The spokesman said SCH had told its Frankfurt-based partner in advance that it would make the sale.
Spain's biggest bank also said Wednesday that it had sold its 1.5% stake in French lender Socit Gnrale SA, leaving it with 4.45%.
SCH would not disclose the prices for the French and German transactions, but at current market values, the stakes...