The Italian bank Unicredit owns many shares of Commerzbank. Many shareholders sold their shares to the Italians. Unicredit owns 49,65 percent of the voting rights. This is more than experts thought. The bank from Milan reached its goal.
Commerzbank has its main office in Frankfurt. The bosses want the bank to stay free. The government of Germany is against a takeover. Now Unicredit can make many decisions alone. It can choose new members for the supervisory board. This board decides about the bank bosses.
Unicredit boss Andrea Orcel wants a huge European bank. He wants to compete with big banks from America. Maybe he plans to cut jobs in Germany. Experts say 7000 jobs can vanish. The workers at Commerzbank are very afraid for their jobs.
The takeover is not finished yet. Important offices must agree first. The European Central Bank must agree too. This takes many months. For bank customers, nothing changes for now. But the banks still argue about the best plan.
