The sale of Citibank's German network could spur a consolidation of the national banking sector, with spurned Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank now focusing on Postbank, and possibly Dresdner Bank as well. Citibank's German private banking network had attracted much interest, with the two biggest German banks among the suitors. But they were upstaged by Credit Mutuel, a regional French cooperative bank which agreed to pay 4.9 billion euros ($7.7 billion) for a business with 3.3 million customers, 340 branches and 6,700 employees. That was not necessarily a setback for the Germans however, because they are also interested in buying the country's biggest retail bank, Postbank. It has a market capitalization of nine billion euros and analysts say bidders should be ready to pay a premium of between 20 and 30 percent. Postbank, which has 14.5 million clients, is controlled by the logistics group Deutsche Post, which owns 50 percent plus one share. The German state, another core shareholder, has its word to say in a sale as well however. On Friday, Postbank shares climbed by 4.65 percent to 51.77 euros in morning trades here, while the Dax index of leading shares was down by 0.44 percent. NordLB analyst Michael Seufert said the price paid for Citibank Germany was at the top end of estimations, which suggested Postbank could also fetch an attractive price.
