And this despite the fact that UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel had stressed last week that he was not seeking a hostile takeover. The German government had also made it clear last week, after UniCredit’s first purchases of Commerzbank shares became known, that it would not sell any more shares. This meant that a hostile takeover seemed to be off the table – until Monday, when news broke that the second-largest Italian bank had bought further blocks of Commerzbank shares (specifically 11.5 percent of the shares).
UniCredit also announced that it had applied to the ECB’s banking supervisory authority to increase its stake to up to 29.9 percent. If it reaches 30 percent, UniCredit must make a takeover offer to the other shareholders.
Possible starting signal for bank takeovers
If a takeover were to take place, UniCredit would become a European banking giant. According to the Financial Times, it would be the first bank takeover of this size since the financial crisis – and would probably trigger a wave of consolidation in Europe’s banking sector, i.e. the formation of larger banks.
During the financial crisis, states had to bail out large banks with billions of euros – out of fear of a crash of the entire financial system. The ECB responded at the time by increasing capital reserves and setting up regular stress tests to check the banks’ resilience to crises.
picturedesk.com/dpa/Helmut Fricke
Commerzbank has, among others, many medium-sized companies as customers
“Unfriendly methods”
After the UniCredit announcement, Scholz reacted unusually undiplomatically during a visit to New York: “Unfriendly attacks, hostile takeovers are not what is a good thing for banks.”
That is why the government has also taken a clear position in this direction and made it very clear “that we do not consider this to be an appropriate course of action in Europe and in Germany, that one is trying to aggressively take on companies using unfriendly methods, without any cooperation, without any consultation, without any feedback”.
Scholz: Bank can exist independently
Commerzbank is a bank that is successfully operating economically, said Scholz. It ensures that the German economy and small and medium-sized businesses get the financing they need. “It is a bank that can do this in its independence.”
On Tuesday, the Commerzbank Board of Management will meet with the Supervisory Board to discuss the strategy up to 2027 – and will now have to gather arguments against a takeover that will convince the other shareholders.
UniCredit recently took over a block of shares that the government had sold. Berlin had rescued Commerzbank during the financial crisis – and in several European countries governments are planning to sell the bank shares they had taken over at the time.
