Commerzbank has completed the sale of its 74 per cent shareholding in Austria’s Privatinvest Bank to Zürcher Kantonalbank as it continues to dispose of non-German assets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Following the deal Privatinvest Bank will be brought under the Zurich Cantonal Bank brand umbrella as of the summer of this year. Adrian Kohler has been appointed chief executive of Privatinvest Bank with immediate effect. Mr Kohler has been with ZKB since 2003 and for the past five years has been head of corporate development, covering strategic planning and control, corporate finance, strategic partnerships and corporate responsibility.

Privatinvest Bank, which is based in Salzburg, had €600 million (around $836 million) in total client assets, as at the end of June, and employed a staff of 50. ZKB said that through the acquisition of Privatinvest Bank it has gained the option of facilitated entry into the European Union market, where it will focus on its core markets of Austria and Germany, along with selected Central European countries.

Commerzbank has previously said that the activities of the Vienna branch of Commerzbank Frankfurt will remain unaffected by the sale of Privatinvest Bank.

Commerzbank, which received state aid from the German government during the financial crisis, has been forced to sell off certain non-core businesses as a condition of receiving the funds under European Union rules.

Among its recent divestments, Commerzbank sold UK private bank Kleinwort Benson to RHJ International, the Belgian financial services group, in October 2009. More recently, last month Commerzbank announced that it has agreed to sell its Monaco-based private bank, Dresdner Bank Monaco, to Lebanon’s Bank Audi sal - Audi Saradar Group.