Already angered by the Italians’ initial advance in September, there is evidence that the German government is now preparing to back its words up with action, using national security clauses in domestic legislation, as well as broader antitrust law, to thwart a full takeover. A briefing note distributed in government circles and shared on Wednesday with POLITICO highlighted two main ways in which such defenses could be activated.
In the first instance, the note advanced the argument that Commerzbank represents a vital national security interest as a supplier of credit to the defense industry, a sector that the German government is suddenly having to prioritize again after 30 years of neglect.
As a second line of argument, it suggested that UniCredit — despite being registered and listed in Italy — could be classified as a non-European entity because half of UniCredit’s shares are held by entities based in the U.S. or U.K.
More outlandishly, the note ventured that a takeover could get extra EU scrutiny via a foreign subsidies review because UniCredit had benefited for years from effective subsidies through a low tax rate on its activities in Russia.
On Wednesday, the German government lashed out publicly at the move, casting it as a creeping, hostile takeover of an essential source of credit to German companies.
“We reject UniCredit’s unsolicited and unfriendly approach,” a government spokesman told a press conference, “all the more so because Commerzbank is a systemically-relevant bank. Unfriendly attacks and hostile takeover are not appropriate in the banking sector.”
