The UniCredit
is pushing ahead with its takeover plans for Commerzbank. The shareholders of the major Italian bank approved the necessary capital increase at an extraordinary general meeting, UniCredit announced. The shareholders approved a capital increase of up to 6.7 billion euros.
This means that UniCredit can fulfill its offer announced in mid-March takeover of all Commerzbank shares official. UniCredit boss Andrea Orcel wants to present a formal offer this Tuesday, as he recently said Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said. Commerzbank shareholders then have four weeks to tender their shares to UniCredit.
In March, UniCredit announced a voluntary exchange offer for all shares in the Frankfurt DAX group. At that time it was said that UniCredit wanted to offer 0.485 new UniCredit securities for each Commerzbank paper. This corresponds to a price of 30.80 euros per Commerzbank share or a premium of four percent to the closing price on March 13th. On this basis, UniCredit assessed the Commerzbank with almost 35 billion euros. However, Commerzbank shares were recently quoted significantly higher at around ten percent. Commerzbank boss Bettina Orlopp had repeatedly expressed opposition to a takeover.
UniCredit is by far Commerzbank’s largest shareholder before the German state. Orcel recently presented a restructuring plan in the event of a takeover, dAs a result, around 7,000 jobs in Germany could be eliminated. The institute, based in Milan, hopes to gain advantages in business with private and medium-sized customers in Germany. UniCredit is already represented in this country through its subsidiary HypoVereinsbank (HVB), which would enable savings.