I politici europei si scagliano contro l’ipocrisia della Commerzbank di Berlino

>Senior European policymakers and economists have sharply criticised the German government over its opposition to a takeover of Commerzbank by Italian rival UniCredit, arguing its protectionist approach ran counter to fundamental EU principles.

>“Cross-border consolidation of banks should not be seen as a political issue. It is technical issue,” the Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras told the Financial Times. “It shouldn’t matter whether it’s a German bank or an Italian bank. What matters is that it is strong European bank.”

>Chancellor Olaf Scholz came out against UniCredit’s move on Commerzbank, Germany’s second-largest listed lender, after the Italian bank announced it had increased its stake in the rival from 9 per cent to 21 per cent, pending regulatory approval.

>Days before, the German government had decided to halt any further sales of its remaining 12 per cent stake in Commerzbank after it sold 4.5 per cent in an after-market block trade to UniCredit earlier in September.

>“Unfriendly attacks [and] hostile takeovers are not a good thing for banks and that is why the German government has clearly positioned itself,” Scholz said.

>Reuters reported last week that the German finance minister Christian Lindner had also shared his concerns about a hostile takeover of Commerzbank with Italy’s Treasury.

>Friedrich Merz, leader of the German opposition Christian Democratic Union, said a tie-up of the two banks would be a “disaster for Germany’s banking market”, arguing that the 2005 takeover of Munich-based HypoVereinsbank by UniCredit had resulted in hefty job losses.

>But economists and officials in Brussels and other European capitals have argued that Berlin’s opposition to a potential merger flew in the face of German support for capital markets union and the consolidation of the EU’s banking sector.

>A former EU commissioner, who talked to the Financial Times on condition of anonymity, said there was a “certain contradiction between the German government’s support for the creation of European champions like Airbus, and its current stance with regard to the UniCredit/Commerzbank situation”.

>The person said it was “difficult to argue” against a tie-up of both banks “if the German government is seriously in favour of European integration and the banking union”.

>Greece’s Stournaras argued that Europe’s banking sector was weakened by the fact it was “fragmented” along national borders, adding that the superior performance of US banks was mainly driven by their bigger size and the closely integrated home market. 

>“We need European banking champions that can compete with American competitors, and we need cross-border consolidation to get stronger banks,” he said, adding that UniCredit’s recent acquisition of a 9 per cent stake in Greek Alpha Bank was “welcomed by all quarters” in Greece.

>Meanwhile, an Italian cabinet minister told the FT that Berlin’s approach was “hypocritical” in the light of Lufthansa’s recent takeover of ailing Italian national carrier Ita Airways, formerly known as Alitalia, which was approved by Rome.

>“Germany has always been pro-EU, they’ve lectured us all for decades about banking union and the single market, on paper we [Meloni’s government] are the nationalists, but when it comes to [Commerzbank] becoming an Italian [competitor’s] target it’s called a hostile act,” the minister said.

>Officials in Brussels are similarly exasperated by Germany’s stance. They noted that Scholz made public his opposition to a takeover just days after former ECB president Mario Draghi unveiled a report calling for the EU to complete the capital markets union and advocating mergers to create more resilient companies.

Whenever any part of Polish industry was taken over by foreign nationals or companies (quite often, but obviously not majorly, German) we were told “[the capital has no nationality](https://www.google.com/search?q=kapita%C5%82+nie+ma+narodowo%C5%9Bci)!”. I guess Germans know better.

I think articles from outside Germany on this issue are (like usual) missing alot of context from inside Germany.

UniCredit approached the purchase of Commerzbank in a cloak-and-dagger way – being invited by J.P. Morgan to participate in the government of Germany offloading Commerzbank shares, and then buying their chunk without either J.P. Morgan or UniCredit informing Berlin first. This was not only a political play (i.e. force the issue to make it harder for the government to object to the take over bid), but also it resulted in UniCredit paying a lower price for those shares to the German taxpayers than if they were formally initiating a takeover. This understandably annoyed the German government, and frankly as a German I hope J.P. Morgan is banned from government contracts over this.

Secondly, the German government has not been on the pro-bank-merger train in the last years – the issue has come up in Germany in terms of previous discussions about other German banks buying Commerzbank, or German banks acquiring foreign rivals…. and at least publicly (and in terms of how things panned out in the end), this did not happen.

It’s also hard to imagine this being popular in Germany – a country which has already seen massive consolidation/Walmart-ization and buy-outs of all the tiny banks which used to exist all over the country. The remaining large German banks have been absolutely left behind in terms of services/digital offerings by all the FinTech start-ups, and they also have been massive liabilities in the past requiring bailouts and generating sketchy financial activity… so like what incentive is there for Germany to support bank consolidation? It’s hard not to see the UniCredit deal as one that supports big companies/big players rather than the average citizen, with an additional upside of job losses in Germany.

Probably UniCredit could have saved themselves alot of trouble by asking the German government “will you support a merger?” and hearing back “probably not.” But instead the CEO of UniCredit has an ego, and wants to make big moves.