UniCredit will pause its bid to take over German lender Commerzbank if it is unable to acquire a controlling stake, chief executive Andrea Orcel told Bloomberg TV in an interview.

Following Commerzbank’s refusal of UniCredit’s €35 billion buyout offer earlier in
April, Orcel has decided to target shareholders on the open market. As UniCredit has already made an offer for a total buyout of the bank, it is not legally required to make another before buying shares from investors individually once it owns 30 per cent of its shares. It currently holds around 29 per cent. Getting to a controlling stake of 51 per cent would cost between €8 and €9 billion at Commerzbank’s current €41.22 billion market cap.

Yesterday, Orcel launched UniCredit’s plan for Commerzbank, which it said would bring Commerzbank’s net profits to €5.1 billion by 2028.

Orcel has now suggested that the takeover bid could be put on hold if its promise of value creation is unable to win over shareholders.

“I signalled clearly yesterday that after trying to bridge the gap between us and Commerzbank, if we do not reach control, we will take a pause and focus on other topics,” Orcel told Bloomberg TV.

UniCredit’s approach has also been criticised by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. According to reporting by the Financial Times, he said on Monday that although Europe needs large lenders, “aggressive” methods of taking over other European banks are unwelcome. He did not mention UniCredit by name, but referred to “current developments” as demonstrating this.

Commerzbank said yesterday that it “formally rejects UniCredit’s continued hostile tactics and misleading characterisations, which undermine the fundamental trust essential to the banking business and the interests of all stakeholders”.

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