German finance minister Christian Lindner has no further plans to sell off Berlin’s remaining 12 per cent share of Commerzbank, the country’s second-largest lender, after Italy’s UniCredit bought a one-fifth stake.
Its investment was prompted by Germany’s recent sell-off of a 4.5 per cent stake, acquired in the banking crisis and bought at auction by UniCredit.
The Milan-based bank has since increased its holding to around 21 per cent, pending regulatory approval.
Quizzed by Bundestag MPs on Wednesday, Mr Lindner said the Milan-based bank’s “style” had “surprised us, raised questions and hadn’t raised trust in UniCredit” in Berlin and among Commerzbank employees.
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The liberal finance minister said Germany’s decision to sell the shareholding – in part to fill holes in the federal budget – was taken by all coalition parties and was in keeping with a “long-expressed motivation” that Berlin was not interested in being a long-term co-owner of a private bank.
Mr Lindner insisted he was not directly involved in the process, managed by the federal finance agency in Frankfurt. It was steered from Berlin by an interministerial committee, headed by Mr Lindner’s finance ministry state secretary Florian Toncar.
On Wednesday, after a closed-door parliamentary meeting, Mr Toncar warned UniCredit it would “not be wise” to ramp up its hostile takeover.
“It is not wise to proceed too aggressively with a large, highly regulated, complex bank,” said Mr Toncar. “You always need the stakeholders in the end.”
UniCredit’s move has prompted widespread criticism in Germany – from Commerzbank board and unions and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Mr Lindner insisted that Berlin is not planning to sell any more of its remaining 12 per cent Commerzbank stake, but that it had little influence over any potential buyers.
“If the government does sell its share, then it is obliged to adhere to a discrimination-free procedure,” he said, “after all, Commerzbank is a publicly-listed company in which anyone can hold a stake”.
Opposition MPs described Mr Lindner’s answers as an “outrageous attempt” by him to “slip out of responsibility” for the sell-off.
Politicians in Frankfurt and the surrounding state of Hesse have warned that, based on previous takeovers, a UniCredit purchase of Commerzbank would bring major job cuts and a downgrade for Frankfurt as a financial capital.
Meanwhile UniCredit chief executive Andrea Orcel has said he is “very keen” for talks with Berlin.
At a London conference, Mr Orcel insisted UniCredit’s 21 per cent stake was “an investment, nothing else, there is no offer, there is no bid” for Commerzbank.
However the Commerzbank investment was, he said, a “test case” for whether European countries can “come together and create a stronger bank” to face down international competition.
Earlier this month, former European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi earlier this month warned that Europe “must genuinely fear for our self-preservation” if progress is not achieve on integrating European banking and capital markets.
Italian government ministers have accused Berlin of double-standards, suggesting they would not frame a German take-over of an Italian firm as a hostile, anti-European intervention.
“When someone comes to buy in Italy, they say that we are in a European system – but then if an Italian buys, it is no longer a single market,” said Mr Antonio Tajani, Italian foreign minister.
Back in Berlin, opposition parties are more concerned with the future financing of its small- and medium-sized enterprises, the so-called Mittelstand who draw around one third of their total financing comes from Commerzbank.
However the German Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (DMB) has welcomed the UniCredit move. DMB chief executive Marc Tenbieg said: “Commerzbank will hardly be able to survive in the global financial market in the long term without external support”.
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