Takeover battle
Klingbeil: Set on the independence of Commerzbank
Commerzbank has been defending itself against a takeover by Unicredit since autumn. One of the Commerzbank owners is the federal government. The new federal government makes its attitude clear.
The new federal government is facing the Italian Unicredit on the side of the German Group in the Commerzbank takeover. “We rely on the independence of Commerzbank,” said finance minister Lars Klingbeil of the German Press Agency. “An unfriendly approach like that of the UniCredit is unacceptable. This is particularly true if it is a system -relevant bank like the Commerzbank.”
The DAX group based in Frankfurt has been defending itself against a takeover by the Italian bank since September. In September, Unicredit had used the federal government’s part in the Commerzbank, which has been partially nationalized since the financial crisis in 2008/2009, and had entered Germany’s second largest private bank on a large scale.
Unicredit boss Andrea Orcel has been promoting Commerzbank for months to make Commerzbank into part of the Italian financial group. But both the Commerzbank tip and the employee representatives defend themselves against it. Most recently, Unicredit had said that a decision would probably not be made this year. Among other things, one wants to “record a constructive dialogue with the new federal government”. The federal government holds a little more than twelve percent at Commerzbank.
dpa
Source: Stern
