Eurohypo Hip hip hooray

Commerzbank could have bought the real-estate subsidiaries of Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank for a song in 2003. Instead, the three German lenders merged their mortgage units to form a new listed company, Eurohypo. Two years on, Deutsche and Dresdner are still keen to sell out – but Commerzbank has staged a remarkable u-turn by becoming the buyer. This is unlikely to be the world’s most value-creative deal. The synergies are limited to small-scale funding benefits. But it’s not obvious that it...