Comdirect bank sells Ebase to FNZ Group for €151m
Comdirect bank will sell its wholly-owned subsidiary Ebase (European Bank for Financial Services) to the fintech provider FNZ Group for €151 million.
Comdirect, which in turn is a subsidiary of Commerzbank, says the reason for the sale is a “stronger focus” on its core business. Namely, saving, investing and trading with securities.
Ebase, a B2B direct bank, is located in Aschheim, near Munich, and has 265 employees. The company offers brokerage and banking solutions to financial services companies, insurers, banks and asset managers.
Ebase has over one million customers and has assets under management of around €31 billion. In 2009, Comdirect purchased Ebase from the former Commerz Asset Management Holding for a purchase price of €24.9 million.
Arno Walter, CEO of Comdirect and chairman of the supervisory board of Ebase, says: “Comdirect has been regularly re-evaluating the future strategic role of Ebase in the Comdirect group. Given the current favourable market conditions and the successful repositioning of Ebase, now was the perfect time for a sale.”
Adrian Durham, CEO of FNZ Group, says it will use Ebase for the “provision of B2B digital wealth management solutions for financial institutions and their clients in Germany and across Europe”.
Comdirect states that after consideration of all potential costs, timing of closing, as well as book value of Ebase, the sale is expected to result in a positive non-recurring income before tax of at least €85 million.
The additional resources will be invested in new products and services, and new technologies. There were no specifics on all of this. However, it has an investment budget of up to €30 million for this purpose in 2018.
The transaction is subject to the approval of the banking supervisory and antitrust authorities. The parties seek to close the transaction this year.
