Germany’s Commerzbank wants formal proposal before UniCredit takeover #NewsGerman

Germany’s Commerzbank has demanded a formal written proposal amid a potential takeover by Italian bank UniCredit.

“We have always signalled our willingness to talk and would examine a proposal from UniCredit in the interests of all stakeholders,” a spokeswoman for Germany’s second-largest bank said on Friday. “However, we have still not received a proposal.”

Commerzbank chief executive Bettina Orlopp is said to have turned down an invitation from her UniCredit counterpart Andrea Orcel with a similar argument late last year.

According to the London-based Financial Times newspaper, the two met in November on the fringes of a conference organized by US bank JPMorgan in London.

There, the Italian reportedly presented his vision for a merged institution, in a conversation that included possible job cuts and the location of a future head office.

Orcel also reportedly suggested a meeting with a small group of employees, which Orlopp is said to have rejected.

Neither bank has confirmed the newspaper’s reporting. Commerzbank stated that it had “interactions” with UniCredit and would continue to have them in the future – as with any other major investor in our company.

UniCredit took advantage of the German government’s partial exit from its sizeable stake in Commerzbank in early September by surprisingly investing in Commerzbank on a large scale.

The German bank’s management, works council and trade unions are resisting a possible purchase offer.