Commerzbank Head Appeals to Shareholders for Loyalty via Letter

With UniCredit’s takeover bid due to close shortly, Commerzbank is appealing to its shareholders to remain loyal: “Do not accept UniCredit’s offer and keep your investment in Commerzbank,” states a letter to shareholders, signed by Commerzbank chief executive Bettina Orlopp.

The letter — which is also due to be sent to shareholders by post in the coming days and was seen in advance by dpa on Friday — states that UniCredit’s current offer still offers “no reasonable premium” for shareholders. 

The target price for Commerzbank shares calculated by analysts is, on average, considerably higher than the offer price and the current share price, meaning “the value potential of your shares has therefore not yet been fully realized.”

UniCredit has not yet presented a robust plan based on the strengths of Commerzbank’s business model, she wrote. Furthermore, the German government does not wish to sell its stake of around 12 percent.

UniCredit’s offer has just a few days left to run In May, UniCredit submitted an exchange offer for Germany’s second-largest private bank, offering 0.485 of its own shares for every Commerzbank share.

According to UniCredit, the offer had been accepted for 12.51 percent of Commerzbank’s shares within the standard takeover period; the deadline was subsequently extended to July 3. This would have given UniCredit, which already held a 26.77 percent stake, a combined holding of almost 40 percent of Commerzbank.

In the letter, Commerzbank reiterates its argument: The more than 500,000 retail investors and several hundred major investors had tendered just over 1 percent of the shares by the end of the regular acceptance period. “The acceptance rate among our shareholders to date speaks for itself.”

The remainder of the shares tendered came from banks with which UniCredit conducts business via financial instruments. UniCredit has repeatedly rejected these allegations.

In September 2024, the Milan-based bank had taken advantage of a share sale by the German government to acquire a large stake in Commerzbank.

UniCredit, which operates in Germany through Hypovereinsbank, sees the potential for savings running into the billions in the event of a takeover, including the loss of thousands of jobs.