The outgoing chairman of the Commerzbank works council, Uwe Tschäge, expects massive job cuts if the Frankfurt financial institution is taken over by the major Italian bank Unicredit.
He fears that two thirds of jobs will be lost in Germany, Tschäge told “Handelsblatt” in its Friday edition. “There is therefore a threat of loss of a little more than 15,000 jobs.” Such a contraction and less competition after the disappearance of a large German private bank would not, according to Tschäge, be a good thing for customers either. This is why it is good, according to him, that both customers and politicians have spoken out against a takeover.
“The bank has shown that it can achieve good returns on its own,” Tschäge said. “I would like it to remain independent.” But he is not naive and knows that size plays an important role in international competition. “This is where the big eat the small.” According to him, Commerzbank has always been a takeover candidate since he joined the bank in 1983. Tschäge will retire early from Commerzbank at the end of the year.
The Milan-based Unicredit group now controls around 28% of Commerzbank shares. The Italians directly hold around 9.5 percent of the shares, Unicredit has additionally secured access to a total of 18.5 percent through financial instruments. The German government has asked the Italian bank to end a takeover attempt.
(Reporting by Frank Siebelt, written by Hans Busemann For questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or [email protected] (for business and markets) .
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