07 February 2012

FN: Deutsche Bank backs Deutsche Börse chief exec, despite failed deal

Deutsche Bank said Monday it still backed Reto Francioni as Deutsche Börse chief executive despite the exchange's failed tie-up with NYSE Euronext, putting the German bank at odds with one of its own fund managers, who suggested the chief executive's reputation had been damaged.

Deutsche Bank said it had always supported the merger plan and said the EU was at fault for prohibiting it. "The exchange is well positioned under the leadership of Reto Francioni, regardless of the failed merger", Deutsche Bank said.

The comments strike a different note from those of fund manager Henning Gebhardt, who is head of European equity business at Deutsche Bank's fund manager, DWS. The merger plans tied up management resources for more than a year and caused the German exchange operator to lose market share by neglecting its day-to-day business, Gebhardt said. The failed merger "won't go by without leaving its mark, especially for Mr Francioni", he added. "Once in a while, there has to be a new beginning--in whatever way", he said when asked whether he considered Francioni to be the right person to head Deutsche Börse.

In a similar vein over the weekend, Johannes Witt, a Deutsche Börse supervisory board member, said that "the question of personnel consequences must be raised". Witt, who is also deputy head of the exchange's works council, told the newspaper that management mustn't be allowed to downplay the failed merger plans as a "small, work-related accident".

Immediately after the EU Commission blocked the planned $17 billion tie-up last week, the exchange's supervisory board chairman, Manfred Gentz, said: "There are no grounds for any fundamental shift in terms of our strategy, organisational structure or management; rather, now is the time for calm and continuity". Deutsche Börse's entire management board lined up behind Francioni last Wednesday in a symbolic gesture at his first public appearance after the merger was blocked.

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