English summary
The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether it will be beneficial to shareholders and guarantors of five Danish banks, Hvidbjerg Bank, Djurslands Bank, Sparekassen Himmerland, Sparekassen Hobro and Salling Bank, to merge in order to create a new regional bank. And if so, which organizational considerations should the new management focus on.

The financial crisis has led to increased demands from politicians and society especially to smaller financial institutions. On this background, during the last couple of years a number of Danish banks and savings banks have joined forces, either as a merger or via acquisitions. This is motivated by the purpose of achieving savings and synergies so that the merged bank has the possibility of providing better economic performance and operate more efficiently.

We mainly chose the banks of this report from a geographical consideration. Since the objective is to create a regional bank, the main criterion is how the individual banks' branches currently are positioned to each other. By choosing banks with none or few branch overlaps in the cities they are represented in, we got the greatest geographical spread.

In this study, we have described and analyzed the key ratios for the five banks in the period 2007-2012, this including - among others - solvency, ICGR and WACC. We have also considered relevant legislation relating to mergers and banking operations. In addition, we have discussed how the different shareholders and guarantors may be included in the merger and how the equity in the new bank can be obtained.

Subsequently we merged the five banks' balance sheets and thoroughly analyzed the items on the income statement and balance sheet that changes as a result of the merger potential synergies. We have also assessed the economic costs that must be expected in relation with the merger of the five banks. Then we have set annual budgets for the individual banks and the merged bank for the period 2013-2015. In addition, we have calculated return on assets and return on equity, based on the estimated figures for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

The final part of the study provided a discussion on how the organization and structure of a new regional bank can be organized. By using the stakeholder model, we conducted a stakeholder analysis. Subsequently, the organizational challenges associated with the merger are discussed, including conflicts of interest, resistance to change, leadership and motivation.

Based on our results and analyzes we found that the merged bank, among other things, will have an improved solvency, income statement and balance sheet, when compared to each of the individual banks. Furthermore, concerned the merged bank, we found the key ratios, return on equity and return on assets to be higher. Right after the merger, savings and synergies will initially be at a low level, however from year 2 and in the long run they are expected to be in full effect. Based on the above our conclusion is that the merger between the five banks will be beneficial to the shareholders and the guarantors.