HSH Nordbank
| HSH Nordbank logo | |
| Aktiengesellschaft | |
| Industry | Banking |
| Founded | June 2, 2003 |
| Headquarters | Hamburg, Germany |
|
Key people
|
Constantin von Oesterreich (CEO) Dr. Thomas Mirow (Pres. of supervisory board) |
| Products | Financial services |
 € 124 million (2012) |
|
| Total assets | € 130.6 billion (2012) |
| Total equity | 12.3% (2012) |
|
Number of employees
|
3,123 (2012) |
| Slogan | STARK FÜR UNTERNEHMER |
| Website | www.hsh-nordbank.com |
HSH Nordbank is a commercial bank in northern Europe with headquarters in Hamburg as well as Kiel, Germany. It is active in corporate and private banking. HSHs main focus is on shipping, transportation, real estate and renewable energy. The bank was created as a result of a merger between Hamburgische Landesbank and Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein on June 2, 2003. HSH has significant operations in Luxembourg, New York, London (the Bank no longer has an office in London) and Singapore. As of 12/2009 it employed 4,188 people worldwide.
As of 12/2009 HSH had a balance sheet of EUR 174.5 bn and reported a loss of EUR 678 mn.[1]
The shareholders are:
| Owner | Share |
|---|---|
| HSH Finanzfonds AoR | 65.00% |
| Hamburg | 10.80% |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 9.58% |
| J.C. Flowers & Co. | 9.31% |
| Savings Banks Association of Schleswig-Holstein | 5.31% |
In the merger the City of Hamburg and the State of Schleswig-Holstein agreed to hold the majority of shares at least until End of 2013.
Financial crisis of 2007-2010
With the beginning of the Financial crisis of 2007-2010 HSH had to report losses on their credit investment portfolio. In September 2008 HSH announced further writedowns. As a direct consequence the CEO Hans Berger stepped down and in the following weeks HSH announced extensive restructuring.[2] Branches in Copenhagen and Hong-Kong were reduced to representations and new business will be focussed on the core region in northern Germany.
In December 2008 HSH was granted to issue up to EUR 30bn guaranteed notes under the German SoFFin program. One requirement that was imposed on HSH was to raise the capital ratio to at least 8%. On January 20, 2009 EUR 3bn 3 year guaranteed notes were issued.[3] On February 24, 2009 HSH received new capital of EUR 3bn and credit guarantees of EUR 10bn by the two main shareholders, the states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.[4] The other shareholders, JC Flowers and the savings bank association, did not participate in the capital infusion. Together with this increase of its core-capital, HSH announced further restructuring. It plans to spin off non-strategic activities and the Toxic asset portfolio into a—yet to be created—Bad Bank.
On April 9, 2009, president of supervisory board Wolfgang Peiner appointed Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to investigate recent management decisions of the Vorstand.[5] On April 17, 2009 the supervisory board of HSH Nordbank relieved Frank Roth, member of the management board of his duties and started pressing criminal charges against him. The bank claims that Frank Roth leaked strictly confidential information to outside parties.[6]
On October 13, 2009, the Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported on a questionable CDO deal codenamed "Omega 55" between HSH Nordbank and BNP Paribas in late 2007, that eventually cost HSH Nordbank 500 million Euro. Parts of that deal were not disclosed to BaFIN, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority.[7]
References
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. Omega 55 was a hybrid CDO which exposed HSH Nordbank to the risks of default of other financial institutions including the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual. However, also included in the deal were several billion euros of risk tied to HSH Nordbank's own assets. It is alleged that he inclusion of this last element allowed HSH Nordbank to move several billions of risky assets off its balance sheet at year end and avoid costly capital reserves which BaFIN would require the bank to post. The assets were repurchased several weeks later after auditors had closed the books of the bank for the year.
