UniCredit Preps Commerzbank Bid If Deutsche Bank Fails, FT Says

(Bloomberg) -- UniCredit SpA is readying a rival bid for Commerzbank AG in case talks to merge the German lender with Deutsche Bank AG collapse, the Financial Times reported citing sources it didn’t identify.

UniCredit’s multibillion-euro plan involves buying a sizeable stake in Commerzbank and merging it with HypoVereinsbank, which UniCredit already owns, according to the report. The newspaper said UniCredit, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

The Italian lender is betting that German politicians will prefer a cross-border deal if the merger talks fail, according to the report, amid signs that the country’s lawmakers are questioning the deal. Apart from a concern about job losses, German taxpayers are also on the hook through the government’s 15 percent stake in Commerzbank and a combination would need to clear a variety of regulatory hurdles to go ahead.

Political skepticism is backed by public opinion, with a Bild newspaper survey last week showing 43 percent against a merger and only 17 percent in favor.

Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank announced last month they’re in talks about a potential merger. Deutsche Bank Supervisory Board Chairman Paul Achleitner recently said that the bank will make a public update on where the talks are headed by the lender’s next earnings release, scheduled for April 26.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeanette Rodrigues in Mumbai at jrodrigues26@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues, Philip Lagerkranser

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