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Deutsche Postbank (Germany)

The Firm is representing and funding a number of institutional investors in securities litigation in Germany against Deutsche Bank AG (“Deutsche Bank”).  In September 2008, Deutsche Bank entered into an agreement with Deutsche Post to acquire Deutsche Post’s majority share (50% +1 of the total outstanding shares) of Deutsche Postbank, one of Germany’s largest banks and financial service providers.  The case against Deutsche Bank alleges that Deutsche Bank violated German law (which requires that a mandatory tender offer be made once an acquirer crosses a threshold of owning 30% of the company it is seeking to acquire) because it did not issue a public tender offer for shares of Deutsche Postbank until 18 months after Deutsche Bank paid the majority of the purchase price to Deutsche Post.  By delaying the tender offer, Deutsche Bank benefitted from market changes that allowed it to make a tender offer significantly lower than the price would have been had it made a timely tender offer.  The facts leading to the allegations were discovered during the course of separate appraisal action proceedings brought by the German investor Effecten-Spiegel AG against Deutsche Bank.  The Firm and its local German counsel filed two waves of complaints on behalf of institutional investors:  one on April 3, 2017, and the other on December 15, 2017.