Andrea Orcel, chief govt officer of Unicredit, in London, UK, on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023.
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UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel advised CNBC Tuesday that he doesn’t foresee a future the place the Italian lender totally controls Commerzbank.
Orcel’s feedback got here because the Italian lender’s tender supply to boost its stake within the German financial institution kicks off.
“If we get to manage, which isn’t the anticipated state of affairs in the intervening time, what we’d do may be very clear, and the returns on that will be … very constructive for our shareholders, and in addition for the shareholders of Commerzbank, nevertheless it’s as much as them,” he advised CNBC’s Carolin Roth.
“We’re probably not fretting it. We’re simply specializing in delivering, and we have executed all we may to interact, and now we’re simply taking a look at what shareholders will do.”
Final month, UniCredit introduced a proposal to construct extra shares in Commerzbank, structured as a share trade. The transfer goals to extend UniCredit’s holding in Commerzbank to greater than 30%, a key regulatory threshold.
It already holds a 28% stake in Commerzbank, after steadily rising its funding within the German lender since taking a minority stake in 2024.
The tender supply for Commerzbank begins on Tuesday.
On Monday, UniCredit shareholders voted to approve the issuance of 470 million new shares which could possibly be exchanged for Commerzbank shares tendered within the supply.
Orcel’s interview with CNBC got here after UniCredit revealed its first-quarter earnings, which have been touted because the financial institution’s twenty first quarter of worthwhile development and its greatest quarter on report.
Quarterly internet revenue grew 16.1% year-on-year to three.2 billion euros ($3.74 billion), properly above the two.8 billion euros anticipated by analysts polled by LSEG.
Shares of UniCredit have been up by round 3% in early commerce on Tuesday.
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