In a surprise move, the German Savings Banks Association (Deutscher
Sparkassen-und Giroverband, or DSGV) is taking over the online broker pulsiv.com in
D|sseldorf.
The savings bank organization will buy 90 percent of pulsiv AG
with
an option to buy the remaining shares. This was reported on the weekend by
the
previous majority shareholder, the D|sseldorf banking house HSBC Trinkaus &
Burkhardt. The remaining shareholders, which have each up to now held a 10
percent share, will drop out; these shareholders are Lang & Schwarz
Wertpapierhandel AG, Heyde AG, and Huk-Coburg Holding GmbH. The trade in
Heyde’s
shares was suspended until Monday after the ad hoc announcement.
According to Paul Hagen, the IT and finance manager with HSBC Trinkaus &
Burkhardt, the “exploding advertising expenses on the online brokerage
market
were making a continuation of the previous strategy increasingly difficult.”
The
right path towards the successful future of the company involves giving up
the
previous niche strategy, the main goal of which was to tie the particularly
active investors to the company. Now it is important to approach broad
groups of
investors, the so-called “second wave”, and win them over as customers.
Pulsiv’s
competitors are of the opinion that pulsiv AG, which entered the tough
market
for direct banks one year ago, was too late in entering the market to be
able to
accumulate large volumes for itself.
In the past, the savings bank organization lacked a definite line when
dealing with online banking. The DSGV never achieved its goal of constructing a
unified online broker.
Several regional German banks, including the Landesbank
Baden-W|rttemberg, are building their own platforms. Trinkaus apparently
wants to cut back its share from 70 to 10 percent for the time being.
Dietrich
Hoppenstedt, a speaker for the DSGV, says, “Pulsiv.com answered the question
for us as to whether we should buy an online broker or found our own.” The
experienced pulsiv.com team, which now consists of 90 qualified employees,
is to be expanded, and Heyde AG will continue to be responsible for the technology
in the future.
Armin Klo_, the press speaker for pulsiv, was not available for questioning.
pulsiv entered the market in April 2000, and it has nearly 18,000 customers
according to January reports. The company’s goals include doubling its
number of customers by the end of the year.
