Italy’s UniCredit makes takeover bid for Germany’s Commerzbank

Published Mon, Mar 16, 2026 · 04:30 PM

[ROME] UniCredit made a 35 billion euro (S$51.3 billion) takeover bid for Commerzbank, while saying it doesn’t expect to actually take full ownership just yet.

The Italian lender said in a statement on Monday (Mar 16) that it expects the move to push its Commerzbank stake above 30 per cent “without reaching control”. Under German law, crossing that threshold makes a bid mandatory.

UniCredit expects its offer to be 0.485 of its own shares for each Commerzbank share, it said in a statement on Monday, “implying a 30.8 euro price per Commerzbank share, or a 4 per cent premium as of closing on Mar 13”, it said. That would be about 34.7 billion euros, according to Bloomberg News calculations.

The move means UniCredit “would be free to launch our offer if we so wished”, UniCredit chief executive officer Andrea Orcel said on an analyst call. “We don’t anticipate, at the moment, to do anything like that. But yes we are free.”

The German regulator BaFin will have to make the final decision on the price in the coming days, UniCredit said.

“This transaction should confirm that UniCredit remains interested in a potential combination with Commerzbank, while also allowing Commerzbank to execute on its share buyback programme without triggering a mandatory offer,” RBC analysts including Anke Reingen said in a note.

Commerzbank is evaluating the situation, a spokesperson said. 

A takeover of Commerzbank would allow Orcel to create a new banking giant in Germany, by combining it with UniCredit’s German lender HVB. It would also open a path for the Italian firm to accelerate growth in Poland, where Commerzbank owns mBank.

Orcel has been floating the possibility of a takeover bid ever since first disclosing a Commerzbank stake in late 2024, which he subsequently expanded. The German lender’s share price has risen more strongly than UniCredit’s since then, making a bid more expensive, though it’s down about 18 per cent this year, one of the worst performers in the Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index.

Commerzbank had a market value of about 33 billion euros at Friday’s market close, compared with about 96 billion euros for UniCredit. Each of the German lender’s shares was worth 29.95 euros at close, compared with 63.50 euros for UniCredit.

The German government, which also holds a stake in Commerzbank, has repeatedly made clear it opposes a takeover by UniCredit. 

The offer is expected to be formally launched at the beginning of May with an offer period of four weeks, UniCredit said.

UniCredit previously controlled just under 30 per cent in Commerzbank. It currently “holds a direct stake of around 26 per cent in Commerzbank and an additional stake of circa 4 per cent is held via total return swaps”, it said in the statement.

“If as expected UniCredit remains with no control in Commerzbank, the financial impact on capital will be negligible,” it said.

A previous effort by Orcel to buy domestic rival Banco BPM was effectively shot down by the Italian government. BLOOMBERG