Italy's UniCredit Wins ECB Approval to Control Germany's Commerzbank

3-line summary

• The ECB approved UniCredit to raise its Commerzbank stake above 30% without upper limits, per Investing.com, after a €45 billion hostile bid completed in July pushed its holding to 48%, which required regulatory approval for the share purchase. UniCredit expects to secure roughly 50% of voting rights and effective control this year, pending remaining regulatory processes, and has threatened to replace Commerzbank's supervisory board and management without waiting for a shareholder meeting; it is reportedly staying just below the 50% threshold to avoid a mandatory buyout obligation for minority shareholders in Polish subsidiary mBank.
• A full merger has been pushed to 2029-2030, and UniCredit has required Commerzbank to follow a profitability-improvement strategy since January. Commerzbank has strongly opposed the move, and the German government has criticized it, pressing for Frankfurt headquarters to be maintained, jobs protected, and lending to German companies preserved; the government is continuing talks with UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel. UniCredit has operated Germany's HVB since 2005 and began building its Commerzbank stake more than two years ago.

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