Comdirect bank, the online banking arm of Commerzbank, has agreed to acquire German online broker Onvista, a unit of Societe Generale, for an undisclosed sum.
The French banking group owns Onvista through its online bank Boursorama. OnVista managed nearly €2.1bn in assets as of September 2016 and has about 90,000 trading-oriented customers.
Comdirect bank CEO Arno Walter said: “With OnVista Bank, we are strengthening our position as a market leader in the brokerage business in Germany in terms of trade figures, and are adhering to our strategy of being the first choice in saving, investing and trading in securities.”
Societe Generale said that the transaction is part of its plan to focus on its core and profitable businesses, and said that the sale would have a limited positive impact on its financial ratios.
The deal is expected to be wrapped up in the first half of 2017, subject to approvals from banking supervisory and antitrust authorities.
“Societe Generale Group remains strongly committed to the German market notably through its corporate and investment banking, specialised financing and consumer finance platforms and will also pursue the further development of Boursorama, its leading online banking subsidiary in France,” the French lender added.
