Unicredit surprises the market once again and announces that it has increased its stake in Commerzbank to 21% thanks to the subscription of financial instruments worth approximately 11,5% of the German institution. A share that adds to the 9% acquired last September 11. Not only that, the bank led by Andrea Orcel has announced that it has "filed a regulatory request for the acquisition of a stake greater than 10% and up to 29,9% at Commerzbank”, one step away from the threshold of the takeover bid. “The related settlement in shares can only take place subject to obtaining the relevant authorizations”, Unicredit specifies. Simply put, only after receiving the necessary authorizations, the long position of the Italian bank can be converted into shares, allowing Unicredit to become largest shareholder of Commerzbank.
The announcement comes after the German Federal Finance Agency announced on Friday that "the Federal Government", which still holds 12,5% of Commerzbank and from which Unicredit had purchased 4,5% of the total 9% it bought up two weeks ago, would not have sold "any more Commerzbank shares until further notice". A move that de facto represented an attempt to block Unicredit's takeover. So much so that a few hours after the new blitz, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz intervened with very harsh words to comment on the news.
Scholz very harsh: "Hostile takeovers are not a good thing for banks"
“Unfriendly attacks, hostile takeovers are not a good thing for the banks,” Scholz commented, answering a question about today’s operation in New York. “The government has positioned itself clearly and he says clearly: we believe that it is not appropriate in Europe and in Germany to proceed with unfriendly methods, without any spirit of cooperation and without agreeing on anything, to participate in an enterprise", concludes the German Chancellor.
He ups the ante German Ministry of Finance, who added: “the German government supports Commerzbank’s independence strategy. We have taken note of Unicredit’s actions. We are not in favor of an acquisition. We communicated this to Unicredit”.
Unicredit rises to 21% of Commerzbank: the announcement
The Unicredit note is clear: the bank "has submitted a regulatory application for the acquisition of a stake of more than 10% and up to 29,9% in Commerzbank" and in the meantime "has today subscribed financial instruments with a stake of approximately 11,5% of the share capital” of the German bank. Unicredit’s overall position in Commerzbank “has therefore reached around 21%”.
Unicredit says it is open to any possible eventuality: selling the stake or increasing it are both options on the table. “Most of UniCredit's economic exposure is hedged, in order to ensure full flexibility to stay at this level, to cede the shareholding, with a downside coverage, or further increase it, depending on the outcome of the discussions with Commerzbank, its management and supervisory boards and, more generally, all its stakeholders in Germany", the note continues, in which Unicredit states that it sees "a significant value creation potential that can be extracted in Commerzbank, both in a standalone scenario and in Unicredit, to the benefit of the whole of Germany and all its stakeholders”. “Nevertheless – he points out – as happened for Unicredit itself, the development of this potential requires the adoption of concrete actions”.
Unicredit-Commerzbank: the summary of the previous episodes
Last September 11, the bank led by Andrea Orcel had stunned the market by announcing that it had acquired 9% of Commerzbank in one action in two moves: 4,49% had been acquired in an accelerated book building offering conducted on behalf of the Federal Republic, while the remainder had been acquired through market transactions.
The announcement had created quite a stir uproar in Germany, with a series of controversies involving the Government, the opposition and even the country's major trade unions. At that point the federal government opened an investigation into the sale of a portion of its Commerzbank shares to examine in detail the sequence of events that led to the sale of the shares to the state and why none of the parties involved had foreseen the possibility that a strategic investor would acquire the entire 4,5% stake in the capital of Germany's second largest bank. Berlin in fact assumed that several institutional investors would come forward to buy small stakes.
It should also be noted that, in an interview with Bloomberg TV, Unicredit CEO Andrea Orcel had stated that the German government was “well aware” of the fact that Unicredit had already accumulated a 4,5% stake in Commerzbank at the time of the sale of the state-owned shares.
On Friday, with the markets closed, the Berlin government then announced a halt to the sale of further shares. A choice criticized by the main German economic daily. According to Reuters in fact, “Unicredit would be a good partner for Commerzbank” and therefore “the German government should not hinder” the operation.
Stock market reaction
The German government's decision has knocked out the Commerzbank title, which this morning lost more than 4% of its value. After Unicredit's announcement, the stock recovered the lost ground and then returned to the red (-3,81%). It extended the morning's losses on Unicredit title, which took it to the bottom of the Ftse Mib with a drop of 3,18%.
Tajani: “Unicredit did well”
The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani promotes Unicredit's move on Commerzbank, arguing that the Italian bank "is right to move" on the EU internal market. In an interview with Class Cnbc Tajani stated that "being pro-European only in words leaves a bit to be desired" and that "one cannot be surprised if some Italians go to buy elsewhere". "Often - he added - Italy is asked to open the doors to privatizations, to the presence of foreigners, and then when Italian companies go outside the borders they say 'then no', we must defend the reality of those countries".
(Last update: 17.34 pm on 23 September).
