By Aimee Look and Joshua Kirby
UniCredit said it secured commitments to raise its total stake in Commerzbank past 30%, adding ballast to the Italian bank's pursuit of its German competitor.
The lender said Tuesday that shares representing around 7.6% of Commerzbank's share capital have been committed as part of its roughly $28 billion takeover attempt.
In aggregate, combined with UniCredit's direct shareholding of 26.8%, the tender would give the bank control of around 34.4% of Commerzbank, above the threshold of 30% plus one share that UniCredit says it set out to achieve with its bid. UniCredit also holds financial instruments connected to 3.2% of Commerzbank, and 13.2% in cash-settled derivatives.
The increase adds momentum to UniCredit Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel's lengthy pursuit of Commerzbank, which takes the form of a roughly 24 billion-euro ($27.86 billion) takeover offer for the shares UniCredit doesn't already own.
