BERLIN (Reuters) -UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said the Italian lender may consider the sale of its stake in Germany’s Commerzbank to a bank outside the European Union if it received a good offer that shareholders wanted, a German newspaper reported on Saturday.
Over the last year, UniCredit has built a 26% equity stake in the German lender and pressed for a tie-up, which Commerzbank opposes. The German state holds a 12% stake in the bank and the government in Berlin is also against a takeover.
If shareholders were no longer satisfied with the investment in Commerzbank, UniCredit could sell the stake at a profit, Orcel told Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“What would happen if a bank that is not from the EU were to offer the most for our shares? Then I would have to accept that offer out of an obligation to my shareholders,” he was quoted as saying.
“Would I like that? Not necessarily, I’ve been trying for a year to forge a stronger bank in Europe,” he told the paper, adding that in the end the rules of the market would prevail.
(Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Sharon Singleton)