Andrea Orcel, Chief Executive Officer of Unicredit, Thursday, November 23, 2023, London, UK.
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UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel told CNBC on Tuesday that he does not foresee a future in which the Italian lender takes full control of Commerzbank.
Orcel’s comments came as the Italian lender launches a takeover offer for the German bank.
“It’s not a foreseeable scenario at this point, but it’s very clear what we would do if we were in control, and the benefits of that would be … very positive for our shareholders and for Commerzbank shareholders, but it’s up to them,” he told CNBC’s Carolyn Ross.
“We’re not too worried. We’re just focused on delivering and we’ve done everything we can to be involved and now we’re just looking at what happens to our shareholders.”
Last month, UniCredit announced a proposal to further increase its stake in Commerzbank in the form of a share swap. The move is aimed at raising UniCredit’s ownership stake in Commerzbank above 30%, a key regulatory threshold.
The company has steadily increased its investments in German financial institutions since acquiring a minority stake in 2024, and already holds a 28% stake in Commerzbank.
The takeover offer for Commerzbank will begin on Tuesday.
On Monday, UniCredit shareholders voted to approve the issuance of 470 million new shares to be exchanged for Commerzbank shares tendered for the offering.
Orcel’s interview with CNBC came after UniCredit announced its first-quarter results, which were touted as the bank’s 21st quarter of profit growth and its best quarter ever.
Net profit rose 16.1% year-on-year to 3.2 billion euros ($3.74 billion), well above the 2.8 billion euros expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
UniCredit stock rose about 3% in early trading Tuesday.
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