Brussels, 19/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 19 October, the European Commission announced that it had reached an agreement in principle with the German authorities to approve the increase by €3 billion of a public guarantee to the bank HSH Nordbank.
The agreement provides for a split of the bank into a holding company, which will take over most of the guarantee fee payment obligations, and an operating subsidiary, which will continue the bank's current operations. This operating subsidiary will subsequently be privatised in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory tender process. Before this happens, the subsidiary will be restructured. The proceeds from the sale will be used first of all to satisfy the German state's guarantee fee claims. The agreement was reached on Monday between the Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, the German Minister-President of Schleswig Holstein, Torsten Albig, and the First Mayor of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz. The agreement will be finalised by Vestager's technical teams before being put to the College of Commissioners. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)