Ja osobne som nakupil DB este za 15 eur/ks. Uz to dalo nejakych 12% za mesiac a pol, odkedy som do toho vstupil v marci. Vyzera, ze aj vdaka EU pozitivnemu vysledku vo Francuzsku je DB v rastovom trende. Snad si to udrzi momentum.


Deutsche Bank’s Big Shareholder Heavily Financed Its New Stake
Chinese conglomerate HNA Group also used ‘collars’ that limit both risk and reward from its stake
Deutsche Bank’s new biggest shareholder, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, used more than $2.8 billion in financing to help buy its nearly 10% stake in the lender.
Deutsche Bank’s new biggest shareholder, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, used more than $2.8 billion in financing to help buy its nearly 10% stake in the lender. PHOTO: LUO HUANHUAN/ZUMA PRESS
By Jenny Strasburg
Updated May 10, 2017 4:31 p.m. ET
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Deutsche Bank AG’s DB 0.85% new biggest shareholder, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, used billions in financing—not just its own money—to help buy its nearly 10% stake in the German lender and protect itself against potential losses on the position.

Bankers and analysts said the disclosures suggest a heavier reliance on financing than they would consider typical for most large investors building a similar holding. Some of them said that investment banks have been competing fiercely for HNA’s business as it goes on a global buying spree.

In February, Deutsche Bank disclosed for the first time that HNA had a major stake, of about 3%. The Chinese company then began a series of transactions that more than tripled its stake to 9.92%, catapulting HNA to the top of the lender’s shareholder roster. Bankers and investors have cited the HNA purchases as a show of strength in the bank.

Yet the filing, made May 2 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, show HNA didn’t just shell out cash to buy the new shares: It tapped more than €2.6 billion ($2.8 billion) in financing, mostly from UBS Group AG. With that money, it bought shares and established derivatives positions that would compensate it if Deutsche Bank’s share price fell while sacrificing some gains if the stock rose.

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The derivatives structure, known as a collar, limits HNA’s risk—and its potential reward.

HNA’s total holding of 204.7 million shares was worth roughly €3.6 billion at Wednesday’s closing price of €17.49 a share. Deutsche Bank shares are up a little more than 1% this year and have almost doubled from the multiyear lows they reached in the fall. Most of HNA’s new shares were bought in late April at €16.70, including fees, according to the filing.

Its stake is held through Austrian asset manager C-Quadrat Investment AG , which manages HNA’s Deutsche Bank investment, according to people familiar with the matter and the U.S. regulatory filing.

Including brokerage and financing fees, the filing said HNA’s share purchases cost €3.4 billion. Roughly 32 million of the shares came at €11.65, the discounted price at which Deutsche Bank sold rights in its recent $8.5 billion capital increase.

Spokesmen for HNA and C-Quadrat declined to comment. A Deutsche Bank spokeswoman also declined to comment on the HNA transactions.

The limited disclosures don’t reveal how much cash HNA put up to become Deutsche Bank’s biggest shareholder. Bankers and others said HNA’s cash outlay could have been less than €1 billion based on the disclosures, but they emphasized that is an estimate.

The investor, according to the U.S. regulatory filing, built up its Deutsche Bank stake based on a belief that the shares “are substantially undervalued and are an attractive investment.”

UBS provided most of the financing, including one chunk of €2.1 billion plus part of a €473 million loan with ICBC Standard Bank PLC, according to the filing. The banks declined to comment.

An undisclosed portion of the €2.1 billion from UBS was used to finance two collars, the filing said.

The trades use options to limit the investor’s risk of losses if shares are below a certain level—in this case €15 and €16.70—when the options contracts expire in 2018 and 2019. In exchange for that protection, HNA agreed in the two transactions to give up profits if the share price exceeds €20 and €21.

Collars involve offsetting cash flows—HNA pays UBS for protection in case of low prices, and UBS pays HNA for the right to profit on high prices—and thus aren’t comparatively expensive. That suggests the bulk of the €2.1 billion UBS loan likely went to actually purchasing shares, say people familiar with such transactions.

Collar transactions aren’t uncommon as hedges against risks in big shareholdings. But other investors could see the narrow range of the collar on HNA’s Deutsche Bank investment as indicating relatively low expectations for the shares and also low risk tolerance, some financiers said.

C-Quadrat’s founder, Alexander Schütz, has been nominated to join Deutsche Bank’s supervisory board next week, when it holds its annual shareholders meeting.

Write to Jenny Strasburg at jenny.strasburg@wsj.com

Appeared in the May. 11, 2017, print edition as 'UBS Funded HNA Investment in Deutsche.'