German insurance company Allianz prepared to become one of the world's largest financial groups on when Dresdner Bank gave it the green light for its euro 23.4-billion takeover bid.
Dresdner's supervisory board removed the last hurdle at a special meeting yesterday, backing management's recommendation that shareholders accept the cash-and-shares bid, which values the bank at euro 53.13 per share or euro 29.7 billion in total.
"Allianz and Dresdner Bank will bundle their forces and in future focus on the three core areas, insurance, asset management and banking," the companies said in a statement.
The statement made no mention of cost savings and gave no details of the way Dresdner, Germany's third largest bank, planned to cooperate with Allianz beyond its existing ties.
The new financial giant with a combined market capitalization of 109.6 billion euros would be second in Europe only to HSBC with a market value of euro 122.8 billion and fourth in the world behind Citigroup, AIG and HSBC.
