{"id":659375,"date":"2026-03-16T09:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/659375\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T09:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:25:17","slug":"unicredit-to-strengthen-stake-in-commerzbank-to-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/659375\/","title":{"rendered":"UniCredit to strengthen stake in Commerzbank to 30%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/UCG-IT\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UniCredit<\/a> has launched an offer to build its stake in <a id=\"107163770\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/\" type=\"security\" brand=\"cnbc\" section=\"[object Object]\" contentclassification=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Commerzbank<\/a> above 30%, a key regulatory threshold if the lender is to launch a full takeover bid.<\/p>\n<p>The Milan-headquartered UniCredit already holds a 28% stake in Commerzbank, comprising about 26.04% in shares with the rest in total return swaps.<\/p>\n<p>The deal is expected to involve an offer exchange ratio of 0.485 shares of UniCredit per share of Commerzbank, implying a 30.80 euro price per Commerzbank share, or a 4% premium.<\/p>\n<p>Stock Chart IconStock chart icon<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static-redesign.cnbcfm.com\/dist\/a54b41835a8b60db28c2.svg\" class=\"Collapsible-dismissButton\" alt=\"hide content\"\/><\/p>\n<p>UniCredit.<\/p>\n<p>UniCredit shares are down 10.5% year-to-date, while Commerzbank&#8217;s share price has fallen more than 18% since the start of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Under German takeover regulations, a 30% stake requires a mandatory offer for the remaining shares.\u00a0 UniCredit&#8217;s bid is designed to overcome this 30% cliff-edge without reaching control.<\/p>\n<p>UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said he does not expect the stake to go significantly above 30%. Taking its stake to 100% would eat up 200 basis points of the bank&#8217;s capital, Orcel added in comments reported by Reuters. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A full takeover scenario is remote,&#8221; Orcel said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"InlineVideo-videoThumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/108278178-17736450341773645032-44603779548-1080pnbcnews.jpg\" alt=\"Unicredit makes takeover bid for Commerzbank\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/06\/11\/unicredit-ceo-commerzbank-shares-now-too-far-beyond-the-fundamentals-for-a-takeover-offer.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orcel told CNBC<\/a> last June that Commerzbank&#8217;s share price then was too high for a merger deal.<\/p>\n<p>The offer is expected to formally launch at the start of May, with UniCredit set to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on May 4 to seek authorization for the related capital increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The German government holds about 12.72% of Commerzbank shares. BlackRock is the third biggest shareholder, with 5.73%, with Norges Bank Investment Management holding 3.14%.<\/p>\n<p>This is a breaking news story. Please refresh for updates.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UniCredit has launched an offer to build its stake in Commerzbank above 30%, a key regulatory threshold if&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":659376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[259,16283,64,81,102524,59964,261913,261911,156181,279254,59907,67,132,68,261909],"class_list":["post-659375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-banks","tag-blackrock-inc","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-commerzbank-ag","tag-ishares-msci-europe-financials-etf","tag-ishares-msci-germany-etf","tag-ishares-msci-italy-etf","tag-spdr-sp-regional-banking-etf","tag-state-street-spdr-euro-stoxx-50-etf","tag-unicredit-spa","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vanguard-ftse-europe-index-fund-etf-shares"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116238137882046270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}