French banking giant BNP Paribas is one of several interested in buying Dresdner Bank.
“The large French bank BNP Paribas is one of the groups seriously interested in the Allianz subsidiary,” says the business daily Handelsblatt, quoting sources close to the matter.
Dresdner is the German insurance group Allianz’s banking unit.
Commerzbank, the second biggest German bank, and a Russian institution are also on the list of suitors for Dresdner Bank.
On Friday, the regional French bank Credit Mutuel said it would pay EUR 4.9 billion for the German subsidiary of US giant Citibank, a move seen as a signal that a long-awaited sector consolidation was now underway.
Dresdner Bank and Postbank, which has the biggest German retail banking network, are logically the next targets for a takeover.
Postbank’s parent company Deutsche Post has said it is in talks with potential buyers, while Allianz has not yet said officially that it wants to sell Dresdner.