And Spain's Unicaja to own majority of new entity from Liberbank merger.

From Reuters

Whilst investment banking has flourished even under the COVID-19 pandemic, bankers are fretting about losing their competitive edge as they pitch digitally for business.

Many bankers are itching to wine and dine clients, or spend time with them on the golf course, concerned that they are falling behind as executives exhaust the banking relationships they have on speed dial.

“The flexibility of being able to work remotely is good, but when it is safe again, young professionals have to be in the office and travel with senior bankers. That is how they learn,” said Robert Kindler, Morgan Stanley’s global head of mergers and acquisitions.

From Reuters

Deutsche Bank is gaining financial strength, putting it in a position to play a leading role in European banking consolidation, CEO Christian Sewing said.

Sewing, who is pursuing a long-term drive to boost earnings power at Deutsche after years of underperformance, has consistently said that his priority was to complete a turnaround by 2022.

Talks on an all-German banking merger with Commerzbank failed in 2019 and, with a stock market value of just $21.9b, Deutsche would be an affordable target for a more richly valued potential acquirer.

From Reuters

Spanish lender Unicaja will own 59.5% of the new entity created by its merger with Liberbank in a deal that valued the latter at $937.12m.

The boards of Unicaja and Liberbank have a merger in which Unicaja will fully absorb its rival to create a bank with $134.6b in assets. The merger is part of a consolidation process in the Spanish banking industry and more broadly in Europe.

Unicaja will grant 1.075 billion new shares to the holders of Liberbank as part of the deal, taking into account the closing price on Tuesday of Unicaja shares, brokerage Jefferies said.