Frankfurt, Hesse/M., February 15, 2024: The words “Commercial Bank” can be seen on the Commerzbank building in the center of the Bankstadt. Commerzbank is targeting profit growth again after a record year, boosted by improving interest rates. Photo: Helmut Fricke/dpa (Photo: Helmut Fricke/Photo Alliance via Getty Images)
Image Alliance | Image Alliance | Getty Images
two thirds of jobs Commerzbank may disappear if UniCredit Bank Commerzbank's supervisory board members warned on Tuesday that the bank had successfully launched a hostile takeover of the German bank.
“We certainly hope to avoid a hostile takeover” of the Italian bank, Stefan Wittmann, a senior official at German union Verdi, told CNBC's Annette Weisbach. Wittmann said Commerzbank's board had called on the German government to conduct an internal review of the possible takeover, which he hoped would give the bank six months to assess the situation.
“But if (a hostile takeover) is inevitable, we think two-thirds of jobs will disappear and branches will be slashed again,” he said, according to a translation.
He added: “We will see in particular that UniCredit simply does not want all Commerzbank customers, but focuses on the so-called best customers, which are wealthy customers.”
Berlin became Commerzbank's largest shareholder after injecting 18.2 billion euros ($20.2 billion) into the bank during the 2008 financial crisis and is likely to play a key role in any potential merger between the two banks.
“What we are really concerned about is our economic and industrial responsibility. The unions are certainly particularly concerned about that when it comes to the workforce, which is always going to suffer in a merger at any point in time,” Wittman said. The bank has not yet responded to a request for comment on Wittman's statement.
Italy's UniCredit said on Monday it had increased its stake in the German lender to around 21% and submitted a request to increase its stake to 29.9%, signaling a possible takeover bid.
UniCredit believes Commerzbank, Germany's second-largest bank, can unlock significant value, but it said further action is needed to “concretely” that value.
According to Reuters, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticized UniCredit Bank's move on Monday, saying “unfriendly attacks and hostile takeovers are not a good thing for banks, which is why the German government has clearly positioned itself in this direction.”
Wittman said the mood within the company was “very tense” at the moment, adding that the bank was surprised by UniCredit's Monday announcement, which he called “a 180-degree turn in 48 hours.”
“(UniCredit CEO Andrea Orser) said on Friday that he wanted to make a friendly takeover with the consent of all stakeholders and politicians. Yesterday, we were surprised by his hostile takeover attempt. This was not It’s not factual,” Wittman said.
The supervisory board member explained that the two main reasons for being critical of a potential merger were the lack of a banking union in Europe and UniCredit's “absorption of Italian government bonds in recent years.”
He questioned what might happen if geopolitical tensions or “upheavals” affected UniCredit's supply of funds to finance the Commerzbank industry.
Economist and former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said in a recent report that European banks face regulatory hurdles that “limit their ability to lend” and pointed to Europe's “incomplete” banking union as a factor affecting the A factor in the competitiveness of regional banks.
“We have always said publicly, including as employee representatives on the Supervisory Board, that mergers can and should be carried out at European level, but only if a banking union is in place. This is only the second point of our criticism, and we say: first set the rules of the game and the guardrails, And then act wisely when it becomes clear where we're playing,” Wittman said.