Berlin - Deutsche Bank announced Monday that it would issue new shares to raise capital for the acquisition of a 29.75-per-cent stake in Deutsche Postbank.

The bank said it expected to raise around 2 billion euros (2.9 billion dollars) from the issue of up to 40 million new registered shares.

Deutsche Bank announced on September 12 that it had agreed to pay 2.8 billion euros to become the biggest single stakeholder in Postbank, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post.

The rights issue would maintain the strong equity capitalization, following the acquisition, the bank said in a statement.

The new shares will have full dividend entitlement for the fiscal year 2008 and will be placed with institutional investors by way of an accelerated bookbuilt offering, the bank said. There will be no public offering.

The acquisition, which goes through in the first quarter of next year, enables Deutsche Bank to tap into Postbank's 14.6 million German clients.

The two banks agreed on cooperation in a number of fields, including mortgage finance and investment products.

The deal came just two weeks after Germany's second-largest bank Commerzbank bought Dresdner, the third-largest, from insurer Allianz for 9.8 billion euros. (dpa)