FRANKFURT – A hearing about lawsuits over Deutsche Bank’s 2010 acquisition of Postbank scheduled on Wednesday has been postponed until October, the court said on Monday.
The delay could give both sides more time to reach a possible settlement in the years-long litigation that has cast a shadow over Germany’s largest lender.
The Cologne-based court cited a “continued need for consultation” in explaining the delay. It has been urging the parties to reach a settlement.
Deutsche Bank welcomed the court’s decision “to take more time for their review” over what it called “a very complex matter”.
Last week, Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) proposed a settlement to shareholders who sued Germany’s largest bank for underpaying them for the Postbank acquisition more than a decade ago, However, a lawyer for the plaintiffs rejected the offer as too low.
The court noted that no settlement had been reached in announcing the new date for its judgment in the case.
“In our view, the court gave Deutsche Bank and the claimants an additional two months to come to a reasonable settlement,” said Jan Bayer, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in reaction to the court’s decision to postpone.
The new date is set for October 23, which is also the day on which Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) has scheduled the publication of its third-quarter earnings.
For years, the suits claiming Deutsche Bank had underpaid former shareholders for the Postbank acquisition bounced around in the courts.
The matter took a dramatic turn in April, when the court in Cologne sounded sympathetic to the former shareholders’ case, prompting Deutsche to make the unexpected 1.3 billion euro ($1.44 billion) provision to offset any possible payout to plaintiffs.
The provision resulted in the bank reporting a quarterly loss, breaking a profit streak of 15 consecutive quarters.
($1 = 0.9053 euros)
(Source: Reuters)
Kevin Putnam is a financial journalist and editor based in New York. He specializes in editing news and analysis related to U.S. stock market.
