String around Commerzbank: Klingbeil: expect that UniCredit will give up takeover attempt

The Federal Government calls for Unicredit boss Andrea Orcel to end his experiment of a Commerzbank takeover. “We expect Unicredit to give up the attempt to take on. We continue to rely on an independent Commerzbank,” said Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) of the German Press Agency. “Commerzbank is a systematic bank in Germany. It has proven that it can also be successful on its own.”

The Unicredit had entered Germany’s second largest private bank in autumn and had announced on Tuesday evening that it doubled its direct share participation at Commerzbank and thus her voting rights from just under 10 percent to around 20 percent. The major Italian bank is now the largest shareholder of the Frankfurt Dax Group – in front of the federal government, which still holds a good 12 percent of the shares.

“Unfriendly approach”

The position of the Federal Government remains clear, emphasized Klingbeil: “We reject the unconvised and unfriendly approach of the UniCredit. The federal government has also made this very clear to the UniCredit. The federal government will not sell its participation.”

So far, Unicredit boss Andrea Orcel has been unimpressed by the resistance from Berlin and Frankfurt. On the contrary: the Unicredit announced that the other around 9 percent at Commerzbank, to which it has access to financial instruments, to convert in shares “in due course”.

From a share share of 30 percent, UniCredit would be legally obliged to provide the other Commerzbank shareholders an official takeover offer. The UniCredit, which already has a pillar in the German market with HypoVereinsbank (HVB), sees opportunities in the business with private and medium-sized customers. In this country there are great concerns that a merger would mean job cuts and branch closures.