BERLIN: UniCredit SpA became a major shareholder in Commerzbank AG after buying the 4.49% stake held by the German government.

UniCredit is paying €13.20 per share for the roughly 53.1 million shares, generating proceeds of €702mil for Germany, the country’s Finance Agency said in a statement yesterday.

The Italian bank’s offer for the stake was a “significant outbid” of everyone else, it said.

The move turns UniCredit into Commerzbank’s third-largest shareholder, with Germany still owning 12% and asset manager BlackRock Inc holding about 7.2%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The government now has committed to a 90-day restriction on further sales of Commerzbank shares, though exceptions apply, the agency said.

“This first partial sale of the federal government’s stake heralds the completion of the successful stabilisation and thus the exit” from Commerzbank, Finance Agency head Eva Grunwald said in the statement yesterday.

“Commerzbank has shown to be standing firmly on its own feet again.”

UniCredit chief executive officer (CEO) Andrea Orcel indicated earlier this year that takeovers could become more attractive for the Italian lender if its share price continues to outperform its European competition.

The share price of UniCredit has been rising more quickly than Commerzbank’s over the past couple of years.

That has lifted the Italian bank’s price to tangible book ratio to 1.05, roughly double the 0.54 for Commerzbank, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

UniCredit has boosted the amount of money paid to shareholders more than any other bank in Europe including Commerzbank.

The Italian lender is on track to pay out just over €10bil this year, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Germany’s stake sale to UniCredit comes a day after Commerzbank announced that CEO Manfred Knof won’t seek a new term when the current one runs out at the end of next year.

The lender has begun looking for a successor, it said, and people familiar with the matter have said that chief financial officer Bettina Orlopp is a strong contender.

 - Bloomberg