Italian UniCredit increases its stake in German Commerzbank

Italian UniCredit increased its share in German Commerzbank.

UniCredit bought 11.5 percent of Commerzbank’s shares. UniCredit had previously bought 9 percent of its German rival’s shares and announced that it would submit applications to regulators to increase its stake.

Thus, the bank has a total of approximately 21 percent of Commerzbank.

UniCredit stated in its statement that the deal will be realized when the necessary approvals are received.

Commerzbank, which has 42 thousand employees and 800 branches, suffered losses of billions of euros after the global financial crisis in 2008 and had to receive state aid of 18.20 billion euros.

Before the acquisition of UniCredit, the German state owned 16.5 percent of Commerzbank.