Commerzbank is threatened with a takeover. According to Finance Minister Lindner, preventing this is the job of the bank itself, not the federal government. The Union sees things quite differently.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) believes that Commerzbank has a responsibility to prevent a takeover by the Italian Unicredit. The Union accuses the federal government of inaction in this matter. “This is a matter for the board of directors and supervisory board of Commerzbank,” Lindner replied when asked what the federal government could do to prevent the major Italian bank.
However, Unicredit’s behavior and style have raised questions and unsettled many shareholders. “For this reason, the federal government has decided not to sell any more shares for the time being,” said Lindner.
Unicredit wants to further increase its stake
The major Italian bank Unicredit recently secured additional shares in the Frankfurt-based DAX group through financial instruments and thus holds around 21 percent of Commerzbank shares. It wants to increase its share further. This makes an official takeover offer for Germany’s second-largest private bank more likely – despite resistance from the federal government. Unicredit took advantage of a partial exit from Commerzbank by the federal government and surprisingly bought into the DAX group.
“The takeover of Commerzbank by an Italian bank is now a matter that we must discuss,” said CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz. This is because Commerzbank finances about a third of German medium-sized businesses and German foreign trade.
“The federal government has made it very clear that it is interested in ensuring that Commerzbank’s ownership is widely diversified,” said CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt. But the result is the exact opposite. This raises questions that the federal government must now answer. The traffic light government has accepted a weakening of Germany as a banking location. Dobrindt said: “It remains to be seen whether this is simply a serious mistake or inability or something worse in dealing with this issue.”
The employee wing of the CDU (CDA) also strongly criticized Unicredit’s approach. “The federal government is called upon to stop this predatory capitalism,” demanded deputy federal chairman Christian Bäumler. Unicredit’s takeover plans endanger tens of thousands of jobs and worsen the investment conditions for small and medium-sized businesses in Germany.
Merz referred to the example of Hypo-Vereinsbank (HVB), which was taken over by Unicredit in 2005. “Anyone who wants to see what will happen should take a look at the fate of HVB, which used to be a very strong bank in Germany and has now become a branch of Unicredit in the legal form of a GmbH in Munich,” said the CDU chairman. If the same thing were to happen to Commerzbank, Germany would lose a key option for financing its economy. Merz stressed that this was a structural problem and not a problem with a single bank.
The Verdi union demanded that the federal government exhaust all options in the takeover battle. “The federal government must declare Commerzbank to be part of the critical infrastructure in Germany,” said union secretary Stefan Wittmann in Frankfurt. The institute plays a crucial role in financing German small and medium-sized businesses. Critical infrastructure in Germany includes energy suppliers, public administration, hospitals and telecommunications.
The former Prime Minister of Hesse, Roland Koch, also called on the federal government to prevent Unicredit from taking over Commerzbank. It was “quite unique that the Federal Republic, as one of the largest economic powers in the world, announced the sale of shares in one of its largest banks and that this then led to a hostile takeover because the tender was not structured in such a way that no single buyer would get everything,” said Koch. “That was very negligent.”
At the same time, Koch called on the federal government not to bury its head in the sand. It had indeed created a situation in which Unicredit boss Andrea Orcel could win. This situation could no longer be prevented by the federal government alone, but this was no justification for it not to now represent German interests. Koch also pointed to potential dangers for small and medium-sized enterprises. “A new unified Italian bank carries major Italian risks, particularly in terms of state financing. German small and medium-sized enterprises could quickly become victims because all forces are concentrated in Italy. If the whole thing becomes a single entity, then all German small and medium-sized enterprises will contribute an unusually high proportion of Italian government bonds to Unicredit. That is not in Germany’s interest.”
Source: Stern
