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By Giulia Segreti, Valentina Za and Tom Sims
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Italy’s UniCredit said on Wednesday that it had acquired a 9% stake in Germany’s Commerzbank and will “explore value creating opportunities for all stakeholders in both banks”.
The purchase by Italy’s No. 2 bank of the stake in Germany’s No. 2 lender makes UniCredit one of Commerzbank’s largest shareholders and follows speculation in recent years that the Italian lender could be interested in taking over the German bank.
Almost half of the shareholding was bought through an accelerated book building launched by the German government, while the remaining shares were bought on the market, UniCredit said in a statement.
“UniCredit will submit regulatory filings for authorization to potentially exceed 9.9% of Commerzbank if and when necessary,” UniCredit said.
Commerzbank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Commerzbank shares jumped 15% in early trade, while Unicredit shares were down 0.1% at 0709 GMT.
The German state has long held a 16.5% Commerzbank stake through its bank rescue fund as a result of a bailout 16 years ago during the global financial crisis.
Berlin said last week that it would begin to pare down its holding, a move that began on Tuesday with the sale of some 53 million shares.
In the past, German officials had privately expressed reluctance to allow Commerzbank to be acquired by a foreign buyer amid fears it would create an even stronger domestic competitor for Deutsche Bank.
Also on Tuesday, Manfred Knof, the chief executive of Commerzbank, said he would not stand for another term when his contract concludes at the end of 2025.
During his tenure, Knof has played down prospects of a possible big bank merger, saying he was striving to keep the bank independent.
UniCredit, which is already present in Germany through HVB, has long held ambitions over Commerzbank.
Andrea Orcel, who took over as CEO of the Italian bank in 2021, studied a deal and approached Commerzbank CEO Manfred Knof in early 2022, before the Ukraine conflict, people with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters.
Orcel’s predecessor, Jean Pierre Mustier, had also been working on a Commerzbank acquisition but political opposition thwarted any deal, according to a person who had worked on the transaction.
The purchase of the German government’s Commerzbank shares by a single buyer is a surprise. It had been expected to go to multiple institutional investors in smaller blocks.
UniCredit paid 13.20 euros ($14.58) per share, above the daily closing price of 12.60 euros, Germany’s finance agency said.
($1 = 0.9054 euros)
(Reporting by Tom Sims, Christian Kraemer, and Giulia Segreti, Editing by Rachel More, Christina Fincher and Tomasz Janowski)