Press Release: State aid: Commission approves restructuring of HSH Nordbank, subject to conditions

The European Commission has approved under EU state aid rules restructuring aid for German bank HSH Nordbank consisting of a capital injection of €3 billion and a risk shield of €10 billion provided by the regions of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.

The support also includes liquidity guarantees amounting to €17 billion. Clearance relies on the commitment to reduce the bank's balance sheet by 61%, including the wind down of its aircraft financing division and the reduction of its shipping financing activities to make the bank less reliant on volatile businesses and to shrink its funding needs, thereby increasing its long-term viability.

The approval of the restructuring plan is conditional on the payment of a higher remuneration for the €10 billion risk shield provided by the two regional authorities in particular in the form of the payment of a lump sum of €500 million in shares. This is to ensure compliance of the risk shield with EU state aid rules relative to impaired assets measures and that minority shareholders bear a fair share of the restructuring costs.

European Commission: Speech/11/588: Joaquín Almunia: Presentation of Comission decision on HSH Nordbank and State of Play on State Aid rules to banks http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/588&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

---