FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The chief executive of Deutsche Bank's (DE:DBKGn) retail arm Postbank (DE:DPBGn) strongly advocates having Deutsche sell a large portion of Postbank's shares on the stock market rather than to another bank, a German magazine reported on Saturday.
Weekly WirtschaftsWoche said selling the shares on the market would be much easier than selling them to a competitor such as Spain's Santander (MC:SAN) or splitting off Deutsche Bank's entire retail banking operation.
The magazine did not quote the Postbank CEO Frank Strauss or cite any sources in the summary of an article to appear in its next issue.
Selling Postbank, which Deutsche Bank now values in its books at 6 billion euros ($6.94 billion), would result in a writeoff, the magazine said.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the article, but repeated a previous statement. "We have been transparent that the bank will review and update its strategy over the course of the coming year. It is irresponsible to speculate on the sale of any business," the bank said.
A person with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters on Wednesday the bank was considering splitting off its retail division, which includes Postbank, and listing it on the stock exchange.
($1 = 0.8645 euros)