OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has withdrawn WGZ BANK AG Westdeutsche Genossenschafts-Zentralbank's Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'AA-', Outlook Stable, and Short-Term IDR of 'F1+' following the bank's merger with DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank (AA-/Stable/F1+).

DZ BANK acquired WGZ BANK in accordance with the merger agreement signed on 12 April 2016 based on an exchange ratio of 67.6 DZ BANK shares for one WGZ BANK share valuing the combined entity at EUR17.6bn. The enlarged DZ BANK is now the sole central institution of Genossenschaftliche FinanzGruppe (GFG, the German cooperative banking group, AA-/Stable/F1+) and intends to complete WGZ BANK's integration by end-2018.