Commerzbank to pay staff bonuses by selling shares

FRANKFURT, June 27 (Reuters) - Commerzbank AG said on Wednesday it would sell 128.3 million of new shares in order to pay staff bonuses worth more than 150 million euros ($186.86 million).

Around 60 percent of the employees have decided they would not keep the shares but would instead sell them immediately to institutional investors, with Commerzbank itself and Deutsche Bank AG acting as bookrunners.

The sale of new shares will help Germany's second biggest lender meet the Basel III criteria on boosting Core Tier 1 capital, the bank said. ($1 = 0.8028 euros) (Reporting By Alexander Huebner; Writing by Marilyn Gerlach; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)