DGAP-News: Aareal Bank to comply with the ECB's recommendation on dividend policy - Situation will be re-assessed after 1 October 2020

Wiesbaden, 5 April 2020 - The Management Board of Aareal Bank AG has resolved - diverging from the proposal for the appropriation of profits, as published in the financial statements - to propose to the Annual General Meeting on 27 May 2020 that the net retained profit should not be used to distribute dividends at this point in time. With this decision - having conducted a detailed review - the Management Board therefore complies with a request by the European Central Bank (ECB) to institutions under its direct supervision to refrain from paying out any dividends for the financial years 2019 and 2020, at least until 1 October 2020. The Management Board reserves the right to submit a new proposal for appropriation of profits to a potential additional General Meeting at a later point in time - provided that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can be assessed with more certainty at that time, and that such proposal for appropriation of profits is feasible given the then-prevailing market situation.

CEO Hermann J. Merkens explained: "Our resolution adopted today complies with the corresponding recommendation by the ECB, which we will take into consideration in our proposal to the Annual General Meeting for the appropriation of profits. Nonetheless, given the ECB's recommendation and recognising the significant uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, we consider postponing the final dividend decision to be appropriate. We will carefully monitor further developments, and will re-assess the situation in due course, also taking our shareholders' interests into consideration."
 

Your contact persons:

Sven Korndörffer
Phone: +49 611 348 2306
[email protected]

Yannick Houdard
Phone: +49 611 348 2462
[email protected]

Aareal Bank Group
Aareal Bank Group, headquartered in Wiesbaden, is a leading international property specialist. It provides smart financings, software products, and digital solutions for the property sector and related industries, and is present across three continents: Europe, North America and Asia/Pacific. Aareal Bank AG, whose shares are included in Deutsche Börse's MDAX index, is the Group's parent entity. It manages the various entities organised in the Group's two business segments: Structured Property Financing and Consulting /Services. The Structured Property Financing segment encompasses all of Aareal Bank Group's property financing and funding activities. In this segment, the Bank facilitates property investment projects for its domestic and international clients, within the framework of a three-continent strategy covering Europe, North America and Asia. In its Consulting/Services segment Aareal Bank Group offers its European clients from the property and energy sectors a unique combination of specialised banking services as well as innovative digital products and services, designed to help clients optimise and enhance the efficiency of their business processes.