Real Estate Often Determines the Success of a Merger
Two banks or insurance companies become one entity. But in practice, challenges arise—especially with real estate. For instance, two headquarters may remain, even though only one is needed. Or two branches might operate just 200 meters apart, doubling costs for rent, energy, and staff.
Work environments also differ. One company may use open-plan offices with desk sharing, while the other relies on individual offices with fixed desks. Such contrasts can unsettle employees and hinder integration.
Why Real Estate Should Be a Priority in Mergers:
- It generates high ongoing costs.
- It ties up significant capital.
- Its impact on customers and employees is highly visible.
- Location decisions often last for decades.
Drees & Sommer supports banks, savings banks, and financial institutions as a one-stop shop throughout the entire process—strategically, technically, commercially, and with a focus on people.
Mergers of banks and savings banks are shaped by rising cost pressures, increasing efficiency demands, regulatory requirements, and evolving expectations from employees and customers.
Typical challenges include:
- Multiple headquarters, overlapping branch networks, and conflicting location strategies
- Diverse real estate portfolios with inconsistent data quality
- Unclear responsibilities and new operational accountabilities from day one
- High investment and renovation needs within the existing portfolio
- Contrasting workplace concepts, branch models, standards, and corporate cultures
Despite their significance, real estate and location strategies are often addressed too late in the process. Yet, they are among the most visible, cost-relevant, and impactful factors in ensuring a successful merger.
- How can we develop and establish a unified real estate and location strategy for the new institution?
- What does a future-proof branch and location concept look like after the merger?
- Which locations can be consolidated, further developed, or repositioned in a meaningful way?
- What organizational structures, roles, and processes will CREM and FM units need in the future?
- How can we ensure transparency across real estate, contracts, costs, obligations, and risks?
- How do we manage new operational responsibilities in a legally compliant way?
- How can we create unified workplace and branch environments that foster acceptance, identity, and employer attractiveness?
Our Integrated Service Approach at Drees & Sommer
We combine strategy, optimization, and operations into a holistic 360° approach across the entire real estate and location portfolio.
- Develop a shared target vision for locations, branches, and work environments.
- Derive a consolidated real estate and location strategy from the corporate and merger strategy.
- Classify real estate as a cost factor, value driver, and competitive instrument.
- Integrate sustainability, ESG, workplace and branch concepts, and cultural aspects.
Result: Clear guidelines for investments, consolidations, and location decisions.
New working models in mergers are more than just an HR topic—they are key to space strategy, cost management, productivity, and corporate culture. “New Work” represents hybrid collaboration, flexible space concepts, digital standards, and work environments that foster identity and provide orientation during transformation.
- Target vision “hybrid working”: Roles, presence logic, meeting and collaboration principles (including leadership in hybrid models).
- Workplace and space concepts: Desk-sharing ratios, team zones, focus and project rooms, retreat areas, customer and interaction areas.
- Standards and guidelines: Space and equipment standards, booking logic, acoustic and data protection requirements, ergonomic criteria.
- Change and communication: Participation formats, pilot spaces, relocation and onboarding communication, cultural and identity anchors for the new institution.
- Operations and management: FM/CREM processes for flexible use (occupancy, services, cleaning, security) and KPIs for measuring effectiveness
- Conduct a structured inventory of all owned and leased properties (administration, branches, special properties).
- Analyze usage, space, costs, contracts, and investment and refurbishment needs.
- Clarify ownership structures, operator obligations, and liability issues.
- Consolidate and harmonize existing data, systems, and CAFM structures (Computer-Aided Facility Management).
Result: A robust, standardized data foundation for the new institution.
Decarbonization reduces costs and risks related to energy prices, regulatory requirements, and investment backlogs while creating a future-proof vision for the portfolio.
- Portfolio strategy: Evaluate consolidation, refurbishment, or new construction based on CO₂ impact, costs, and usage.
- CO₂ balance and energy status per property: Collect and validate data, and identify key hotspots.
- ESG and CRR requirements: Derive action areas from EU taxonomy, CSRD data requirements, and internal policies.
- Decarbonization roadmap: Prioritize measures for building envelope, technology, renewable energy, and users.
- Capex and Opex scenarios: Assess cost-effectiveness, funding eligibility, and investment needs.
- Implementation management: Oversee programs and projects from procurement to client representation and monitoring.
Mergers often bring together different system landscapes, data sets, and operational processes. Digitalization ensures transparency, standardization, and efficiency from the portfolio level to individual sites.
- Data model and governance: Standardized property, space, and cost logic, roles, responsibilities, and data quality.
- System harmonization: CAFM/IWMS, document management, ticketing, contract, and space management.
- Digital real estate register: Obligations, inspections, operator responsibilities, documentation.
- Standardized processes: Procurement, service management, occupancy/booking, relocations, maintenance.
- Smart building and energy monitoring: Measurement concepts, metering/sensor strategies, dashboards, KPI management.
- Cybersecurity and data protection: Requirements for connected buildings, access concepts, interfaces, and service providers.
Branch concepts and location consolidation are key levers in mergers. We focus on strategic redesign rather than isolated closures.
- Objectively assess branches and locations based on location, catchment area, usage, and profitability.
- Develop future-proof branch and usage concepts for consulting, interaction, or multi-use.
- Derive structured location consolidations instead of isolated closure decisions.
- Analyze portfolio scenarios for continuation, consolidation, relocation, closure, or development.
- Identify efficiency potential with space reductions typically of 30–40%.
Guiding principle: Reduce space, increase quality.
- Harmonize organizational structures in corporate real estate and facility management.
- Consolidate and optimize service and supplier contracts.
- Establish clear operator and responsibility structures from day one.
- Ensure operational, cybersecurity, and legal security across all locations.
Result: Stable, secure, and cost-efficient operations for the consolidated portfolio.
- Support operational implementation of location, branch, and real estate strategies.
- Facilitate internal and external communication for employees, committees, and the public.
- Implement change management measures to promote acceptance, orientation, and identification.
- Strengthen motivation, collaboration, and employer attractiveness.
Guiding principle: Sustainable success is driven by people, not just structures or cost synergies.
Who Is It Suitable For?
- Cooperative banks and savings banks.
- Regional and specialized banks.
- Insurance companies.
- Institutions before, during, or after a merger.
Your benefits
- Prepare clear decision papers for executive boards and supervisory bodies.
- Reduce risks early and ensure legal certainty.
- Sustainably reduce space, energy, and operating costs.
- Increase transparency across portfolio, investments, and operator obligations.
- Develop future-proof branch, location, and workplace environments.
- Strengthen employer brand and corporate culture.
We support your merger holistically—from strategy and location/branch concepts to stable operations.
