The 31 shareholders have demanded a total of £660 million in compensation after they accused the German bank of paying them too little for their shares in the acquisition of Postbank, another bank.
Oliver Krauss, a lawyer at Munich-based firm Tricon, said Deutsche Bank should have paid his 31 clients around 64 euros per share rather than the 25 euros they received when they accepted the takeover offer of Postbank in 2010.
They argue, in a suit filed in late December, Deutsche Bank effectively took control of Postbank in 2008 when it bought a stake of just under 30 per cent at a much higher price than 25 euros.
They added that as a result Postbank shareholders are entitled to a much higher price for their holdings.
A spokeswoman for a district court in Cologne, where the case is currently in process, declined to comment.
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According to the complaint, there should have been numerous, partly secret contracts and agreements between the Postbank office and Deutsche Bank.
In September 2006, for example, they made a joint decision to alert Postbank’s strategy to avoid risky business and focus entirely on private customers, according to Germany business magazine WirtschaftsWoche.
Krauss, citing client confidentiality, declined to provide a copy of the lawsuit but confirmed the accuracy of the WirtschaftsWoche article, according to Reuters.
In addition, WirtschaftsWoche said Postbank and Deutsche Bank agreed on details of a planned capital increase, board changes and the elimination of a 2008 dividend.
December 31 marked a deadline for taking legal action on the takeover.
Additional reporting by Monika Wallenberg.