Aareal Bank AG is an international company listed on the
MDAX index with headquarters in
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
which traded as DePfa Deutsche Bau- und Boden Bank AG and formed part of the
DePfa Gruppe until 2002.
Aareal Bank is represented on three
continents
A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
(
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
,
North America and the
Asia-Pacific region) and oversees property financing in more than 20 countries. Aareal Bank AG has been listed on the German stock exchange since 2002.
History
The company's history dates back to two institutions: Preußische Landespfandbriefanstalt (founded in 1922) and Deutsche Wohnstättenbank AG (founded in 1923), both of which were based in Berlin. Deutsche Wohnstättenbank AG was renamed Deutsche Bau- und Bodenbank in 1926.
In the years of the Nazi rule, the bank grew rapidly thanks to the bridging loan business which mainly targeted the funding of settlement and housing construction. These sectors boomed following the massive increase of the armament industry that demanded accommodation for their workers, often designed as
National Socialist ideal settlements.
The prospect of business opportunities due to the boom of the armament industry also fostered the bank's department for industrial loans. Millions of Reichsmark were granted to companies like
Ruhrgas AG,
Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG
The Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG (VSt or Vestag, ''United Steelworks'') was a German industrial conglomerate producing coal, iron, and steel in the interbellum and during World War II.
Founded in 1926, economic pressures (decreasing prices and excess ...
or
Daimler-Benz AG.
At the time of the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, already 63 of 267 employees belonged to the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
.
While chairman of the supervisory board Otto Kämper was a member as well and publicly praised the success of the government in the field of housing, democrats such as Arnold Knoblauch or
Eberhard Wildermuth, who was in contact with conspirators of the
20 July plot, were still holding a seat on the supervisory board until World War II.
Preußische Landespfandbriefanstalt was given the name Deutsche Pfandbriefanstalt in 1954. In 1979, Deutsche Pfandbriefanstalt acquired a majority interest in Deutsche Bau- und Bodenbank. It traded as public limited company under the name Deutsche Pfandbrief- und Hypothekenbank AG from 1989, before going public in 1991 and opening its first foreign branch in Amsterdam in the same year.
In 1999, Deutsche Pfandbrief- und Hypothekenbank AG was renamed DePfa Deutsche Pfandbrief Bank AG and transferred all property activities to Deutsche Bau- und Bodenbank, which was also given the name DePfa Bank AG BauBoden at this time. In 2002, the bank was divided into Aareal Bank AG (formerly Deutsche Bau- und Bodenbank), a property finance bank with headquarters in Wiesbaden, and
DePfa BANK plc, a public finance bank based in Dublin. Since 2006, the company has focused on the Commercial Property Financing and Consulting/Services segments.
Bodies
Hermann J. Merkens has been
chairman of the management board of the company since 2015. The supervisory board members are elected for a period of five years each. The current term of Marija Korsch as chairman of the
supervisory board
In corporate governance, a governance board also known as council of delegates are chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the governance of the company and to hire and fire the board of directors.
In civil s ...
began in 2013.
Aareal Bank AG: Company profile
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Shareholder structure
(as of 31 December 2015)
Subsidiaries
The Aareal Bank Group includes the following companies
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
:
See also
*List of banks
Lists of banks are contained in the following articles:
By continent
* List of banks in Africa – Each country in Africa has a list of banks operating in that country
* List of banks in Asia – Asia has a list of banks operating in that co ...
*List of banks in Germany Central banks
*Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt
*European Central Bank, Frankfurt
Local banks
*BayernLB, Munich
* Bremer Bank, Bremen
*Commerzbank, Frankfurt
*Consorsbank, Nuremberg
* DAB BNP Paribas, Munich
*DekaBank (Germany), Frankfurt
*Deut ...
References
External links
*Official websit
Aareal Bank AG
*Official websit
Aareon AG
*
*
{{Authority control
Banks established in 1922
Financial services companies of Germany
Banks of Germany
1922 establishments in Germany
Banks under direct supervision of the European Central Bank
Companies in the MDAX