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German bank PBB says it can cope with US real estate troubles as shares slide

Tom Sims
·2-min read
FILE PHOTO: Headquarters of German lender Hypo Real Estate 'Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG' is pictured in Unterschleissheim

By Tom Sims

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (PBB) sought to reassure investors on Thursday that it has enough funds to cope with a downturn in the U.S. commercial real estate market, as the German lender's shares sold off again.

Higher interest rates, refinancing difficulties and lower office occupancy have hit the U.S. commercial real estate sector in recent months, raising concerns about defaults. A renewed selloff in some U.S. regional banking shares this week has reignited fears about which lenders are most exposed.

PBB, listed on the small-cap SDAX index, is heavily focused on the real estate industry, and its update on Thursday was the second unscheduled announcement in two days as its shares and bonds come under pressure. On Wednesday it described the U.S. market as "the greatest real estate crisis since the financial crisis".

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Last week Germany's Deutsche Bank also hiked its provisioning for commercial real estate loans in the U.S.

PBB's exposure to the U.S. real estate market is 5 billion euros, or 15% of its portfolio, the bank has said.

PBB said in a statement on Thursday its liquidity was twice the amount required by regulators.

"Due to our high liquidity, we are able to operate without new unsecured funding for more than 6 months," it said.

PBB said its liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) stood at 212%, 112 percentage points above the regulatory requirement of 100%.

It also said that retail deposits continued to grow and were now above 7 billion euros ($7.53 billion).

PBB's shares were down 2.8% at 1415 GMT, making for a 27% decline so far this year.

The bank's 150-million euro 2027 bond was last around 58.47 cents, little changed on the day, but down from 70.429 at Tuesday's close. The bank raises much of its funding via the German covered bond market, and according to its website it also takes overnight and term deposits from retail investors.

On Wednesday the bank reported an increase in risk provisions in the fourth quarter.

($1 = 0.9294 euros)

(Additional reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Danilo Masoni in LondonEditing by Miranda Murray and Elaine Hardcastle)