Any UniCredit/Commerzbank merger must create competitive lender, Bundesbank chief says
FRANKFURT, Sept 18 (Reuters) -Any merger of Commerzbank CBKG.DE and UniCredit CRDI.MI must create a competitive institution robust enough to support German economic growth, Bundesbank chief Joachim Nagel said on Wednesday.
Italy's second-largest bank took a 9% stake in Commerzbank last week, catching German authorities off guard and getting a hostile reception from local management, who want to fend off any takeover attempt.
It will now be up to the European Central Bank whether to allow UniCredit to increase its stake, so any comment from the Bundesbank - whose representative sits on the ECB's Supervisory Board - is likely to be closely scrutinized.
"We need strong and robust banks so that companies can tackle and finance their future tasks," Nagel told a Commerzbank event in Frankfurt.
"In case of possible mergers, it is important that a competitive institution is created which fulfils this task as best as possible," Nagel said, without any specific reference to either of the lenders.
UniCredit is among the best capitalised banks in Europe, with a common equity tier 1 or CET1 capital ratio of 16.2% at the end of the first half, despite a generous dividend and share buy-back programme.
This would suggest that UniCredit has the financial capacity to engineer a viable takeover.
However, any deal is likely to be politically charged since Germany's banking sector is dominated by two large institutions: Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank.
The sale of Commerzbank to UniCredit would increase competition for Deutsche Bank and leave Commerzbank under foreign control, a potentially sensitive issue for a government facing elections next year.
However, the ECB has repeatedly voiced support for cross-border mergers to improve European banking competitiveness, so the supervisor is unlikely to block the deal if UniCredit can present a plan that creates a financially sound mega-bank.
Reporting by Balazs Koranyi
Editing by Mark Potter
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
