Commerzbank and UniCredit representatives will meet Friday in their first round of talks since the Italian bank announced it would boost its stake in the German lender to 21%.
“UniCredit is now a shareholder, and it is very normal that you exchange views,” Bettina Orlopp, Commerzbank’s CFO, said Thursday, according to the Financial Times.
Orlopp’s appearance Thursday at a Bank of America conference in London marked her first public comments since she was named Commerzbank’s CEO-in-waiting Tuesday. She is expected to become CEO next week. Outgoing CEO Manfred Knof will leave his role Monday, the bank announced Wednesday.
Appearing a day before Orlopp at the BofA conference, UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel clarified that he saw Commerzbank as “an investment and nothing else.”
Rumors have amplified this month, however, that Orcel intends to acquire the bank — and Orcel confirmed Wednesday that option is on the table.
In any case, Orcel has said he will present proposals on how Commerzbank can deploy its capital more efficiently and improve its performance, according to Bloomberg.
To that end, Commerzbank on Thursday revealed more ambitious medium-term targets — perhaps a preemptive signal that it would prefer to stay independent.
Germany’s second-largest lender is now aiming to reach €3.6 billion ($4 billion) in profit for 2027 — up from €3.4 billion it predicted last November and well above the €2.2 billion it saw in 2023.
The bank also wants its return on tangible equity to hit 12.3% by 2027 — again, over its previous target of 11.5% and dwarfing its 8.9% ROTE from the first half of this year.
Commerzbank is predicting its revenue will reach €13.3 billion by 2027 — surpassing the €12.5 billion the bank previously estimated for that year, as well as the €10.9 billion it expects for 2024.
The bank sees a reduction in its risk-weighted assets, too — €189 billion in 2027, compared with its previous estimate of €196 billion.
“Commerzbank is continuously expanding its independent position as a strong pillar in the German banking market and a reliable partner to the domestic economy,” the bank’s board chair, Jens Weidmann, said in a statement Thursday. “As ‘Bank for Germany,’ we firmly believe that it has considerable growth and appreciation potential.”
For all the mention of domestic banking, Orlopp emphasized that Commerzbank would “stay very open-minded” to UniCredit’s pitches, according to Bloomberg.
But she stressed the need to jointly analyze the pros and cons of any tie-up, in balancing cost savings against risk and other factors, such as distraction to employees and potential client flight.
"Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't make sense, and that is something we need to find out jointly," she said, according to Reuters.
Asked if the bank would engage any “poison pills” to make it a less attractive target for UniCredit, Orlopp said Commerzbank would “not do any stupid things.”
“Any idea of now doing some crazy acquisitions or fast sell-downs, et cetera — not with us, we won’t do that,” she said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“The last thing which we want is any destruction, any harm to our bank, to Commerzbank and the core values there,” she said, according to Bloomberg.
