Staff of German lender Commerzbank demonstrate against Italian bank Unicredit’s takeover bid – Copyright AFP Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV<\/p>\n
Jean-Philippe LACOUR<\/p>\n
German lender Commerzbank\u2019s boss was applauded at a shareholder meeting Wednesday as she slammed Italian bank UniCredit\u2019s hostile takeover bid, while staff\u00a0outside the venue protested against any potential merger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After spending over a year building up a stake in Commerzbank, Italy\u2019s second-biggest bank earlier this month officially launched a 35-billion-euro ($41 billion) takeover attempt for its German rival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bid is widely seen as too low, but it marks the latest move in the Italian bank\u2019s relentless pursuit of Commerzbank which has sparked fury from the lender and top German politicians.<\/p>\n
Addressing Commerzbank\u2019s annual general meeting, CEO Bettina Orlopp slammed UniCredit\u2019s offer as a \u201can attempt to take over Commerzbank at a price that does not properly reflect the fundamental value and potential of our bank\u201d.<\/p>\n
Commerzbank workers at the event \u2014 wearing T-shirts in yellow, the colour of the bank\u2019s logo, emblazoned with the slogan \u201cwe own yellow\u201d \u2014 frequently applauded and cheered her speech.<\/p>\n
A group of staff protesting outside the venue, in the western city of Wiesbaden, waved signs that read \u201cUniCredit Go Away!\u201d and \u201cNo Merger\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other top Commerzbank officials lined up to criticise the bid led by UniCredit boss Andrea Orcel at the gathering of shareholders, who have have the final say in whether it succeeds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Inherent risks\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Jens Weidmann, chairman of the supervisory board of the Frankfurt-based bank, warned shareholders would have to take on \u201cUniCredit\u2019s inherent risks\u201d in the event of a takeover.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He cited \u201cincreased exposure to Italian government bonds, a significantly higher proportion of non-performing loans, and still substantial operations in Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n
UniCredit has wooed Commerzbank shareholders with promises of higher returns by refocusing its activity on the German market to spur faster growth.<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s second-biggest lender has sought to fend off the advances by boosting its financial targets, and also cutting jobs to become leaner and more attractive to shareholders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, it announced plans to axe a further 3,000 jobs after last year saying it would cut thousands of positions.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has led criticism from German politicians of what he has termed \u201chostile and aggressive approaches\u201d, saying recently that such actions are \u201chow trust is destroyed\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But UniCredit argues that it is trying to create a pan-European banking behemoth that will be better equipped to take on larger US rivals internationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some European officials have spoken out in favour of more cross-border banking mergers as part of efforts to unify the region\u2019s fragmented financial markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite her resistance to the takeover, Orlopp said Commerzbank remains \u201copen to dialogue\u201d with UniCredit, and set out three conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, a dialogue based on trust. Second, a concrete plan \u2014 strategically, operationally, and culturally,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd third, a convincing offer providing an adequate premium for shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staff of German lender Commerzbank demonstrate against Italian bank Unicredit’s takeover bid – Copyright AFP Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV Jean-Philippe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8096,3487,5,61,6521],"class_list":["post-17029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-banking","tag-commerzbank","tag-germany","tag-italy","tag-unicredit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}