Deutsche Bank’s Top Qatari Holder Says Time Is Ripe for Mergers - Bloomberg

Deutsche Bank’s Top Qatari Holder Says Time Is Ripe for Mergers - Bloomberg

Deutsche Bank AG’s top Qatari shareholder signaled his backing for consolidation in Europe’s financial services industry, arguing that the continent’s lenders need scale to compete globally.

In a rare interview, former Qatari prime minister and influential investor Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani said European lenders should start merging now to confront the growing strength of U.S. and Chinese lenders. Asked specifically about Deutsche Bank, he said “they have to decide, but I’m saying what I think and I believe that mergers are inevitable.”

“Everybody’s waiting to have a better valuation to think about merging, but I believe to merge now is better because the market is being taken by the big banks,” he said in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg. “If we compare the European banks with the American banks or with the Chinese banks, we would find that they are too small to survive by themselves.”

Sheikh Hamad is one of the German lender’s largest shareholders through an entity called Paramount Services Holdings. In 2015, he transferred about half his shareholding to Supreme Universal Holdings, controlled by former emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani. Each entity owns a stake of just over 3% in the Deutsche Bank.