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UniCredit Would Boost German Arm With Commerzbank Deal: FAS

By Christoph Rauwald
The HVB Tower, an office building of UniCredit Bank AG subsidiary Hypo Vereinsbank, in Munich, Germany, on Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. The European Central Bank will raise interest rates twice more in its struggle with unprecedented inflation, including a smaller half-point hike next week, economists predict. (Michaela Rehle/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Commerzbank AG management board member Michael Kotzbauer said a possible merger with UniCredit SpA would result largely in a consolidation of Germany’s national banking landscape, given the absence of a European capital market union that would promote broader synergies.

The deal will potentially seek to combine Commerzbank with UniCredit’s German Hypovereinsbank unit because a wider unified European regulatory framework like a joint deposit insurance doesn’t exist yet, Kotzbauer is cited in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung published on Sunday.

Commerzbank officials, including the new chief executive officer Bettina Orlopp, have voiced some reservations toward UniCredit’s surprise move last month to become a major shareholder in Germany’s second-largest lender. UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel has said he’s open to consider a possible takeover.

Kotzbauer echoed a comment made by Orlopp earlier this month, saying that Commerzbank’s strategy is “built on independence” of the bank. The German bank’s labor unions fiercely opposed the merger with UniCredit because they fear the deal would lead to job cuts in Germany. 

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