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Hypo Bank plans Net float
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August 11, 1999: 8:59 a.m. ET
German bank joins queue to list Net assets - when market conditions stabilize
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Germanys HypoVereinsbank joined the ranks of financial firms seeking to capitalize on their Internet assets Wednesday by disclosing plans to float its online brokerage unit.
However, Germany's second-largest bank will wait until mid-2000 at the earliest before selling shares of Direkt Anlage Bank (DAB) as the volatility of Europe's fledgling Net sector creates increasing uncertainty over valuations.
Germany's fragmented banks have seized on the Net as a cost-effective means to expand their retail presence into other European markets. Deutsche Bank (FDTK), Europe's largest, plans to merge its retail and Net banking assets under the wing of its bank 24 am, though it has no plans to list the unit.
DAB has a client base of 100,000, and the stock sale plan follows last month's decision by Commerzbank (FCBK), Germany's fourth-largest, to delay the float of its own online unit, Comdirect Bank, until next year, citing uncertain market conditions.
HypoVereinsbank was up 26 percent at 53.60 euros while the Frankfurt market was up 0.5 percent.
ConSors Discount Broker, Germany's largest online trader, has been one of the few companies to buck the slide on the tech-heavy NeuerMarkt index in Frankfurt, where most Net-related firms have listed.
ConSors shares traded at 65.70 euros, close to their 1999 high of 66 euros. The market as a whole is down 20 percent since its peak in March.
Potential Net issuers have been unnerved by the performance of two large British Net stocks since their flotation over the past two weeks.
Shares in Internet portal Freeserve (FREEV) have fallen sharply since being listed at a 39 percent premium while Exchange Holdings, a personal finance site, dipped below its 200 pence a share issue price Tuesday. 
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