By Tom Sims
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Italy’s UniCredit will not take over Commerzbank, the German lender’s CEO Bettina Orlopp said on Wednesday, but she added that investors will have the final say.Over the past year, UniCredit has built up a 26% equity stake in the German bank and pressed for a tie-up, but Commerzbank has resisted the advances of the Italian bank.
Orlopp’s remarks, made at a banking conference on Wednesday, underscored an increasingly defiant tone from the German bank to UniCredit’s overtures.
Orlopp, when asked how she would answer the question whether UniCredit would eventually take over Commerzbank or not, said: “Of course, no”.
“Our shareholders will decide, and that’s where the decision belongs,” Orlopp said.
Any deal “will depend on whether such a transaction makes sense, yes or no, whether it creates value, yes or no, and that will ultimately be the deciding factor,” Orlopp said.
In September last year, UniCredit announced its first acquisition of a hefty stake in Commerzbank.
UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel, who is scheduled to speak at the same conference on Thursday, has said a deal “would create a new national banking champion for Germany” and aid “the revitalisation of the German economy”.
Commerzbank has resisted UniCredit’s advances, citing its intention to remain independent amid concerns raised by employees, the German government, and customers.
“We have been able to demonstrate many, many successes over the past 12 months… And we have no intention of slowing down. We are fully focused on implementing our strategy,” Orlopp said.
(Reporting by Tom SimsEditing by Madeline Chambers and Louise Heavens)
