Banks
“Financial Times”: Commerzbank is considering cutting thousands of jobs
According to a report, Germany’s second largest private bank could cut numerous jobs – also as part of a strategy against a takeover. February should bring certainty.
In order to prevent a possible takeover by the major Italian bank Unicredit, Commerzbank is also considering cutting thousands of jobs, according to a report in the Financial Times (FT). The plans are expected to be presented to the works council in the coming weeks, the newspaper reports, citing people familiar with the matter. There is talk of a likely job loss in the low thousands.
Upon request, Commerzbank said that investors and the public would be comprehensively informed about the latest status of the company’s strategy, which is still being worked on, at a capital market day on February 13th. “We cannot anticipate the upcoming discussions in the board of directors and supervisory board.” In principle, increasing competitiveness is an ongoing business task.
Unicredit controls around 28 percent of Commerzbank and has already announced that it will seek supervisory approval for a stake of up to 29.9 percent. From a stake of 30 percent, the Milan bank would be obliged to submit a public takeover offer.
At the end of last year, the then Commerzbank works council chairman Uwe Tschäge warned in the “Handelsblatt” that two-thirds of all jobs in Germany could be lost if Germany’s second-largest private bank were taken over. There is a risk of a good 15,000 jobs being cut.
Unicredit said at the time that this was completely out of thin air. In addition to the works council and unions, the federal government also rejects the Italians’ actions.
dpa
Source: Stern
