Frankfurt, May 8, 2026, 23:03 CEST
- Commerzbank plans up to 3,000 more job cuts as it lifts profit targets and tries to prove it is worth more on its own.
- UniCredit’s all-share offer is now in front of investors, but Commerzbank says the price is below market value.
- The fight has moved beyond valuation: Berlin, labor leaders and Germany’s financial regulator are now part of the pressure campaign.
Commerzbank said it would cut up to 3,000 further jobs and raise its 2026 and 2030 profit targets, sharpening its defence against UniCredit’s unsolicited takeover push only days after the Italian bank formally opened its offer to shareholders.
The move matters now because UniCredit has already built a stake of just under 30% in Commerzbank and is trying to move above a key German takeover threshold, while Berlin still holds 12% of a lender seen as central to financing Germany’s Mittelstand, the small and mid-sized companies that anchor the country’s industrial base.
Commerzbank reported first-quarter net profit of 913 million euros, up 9% from a year earlier, and said it now expects a 2026 net result of at least 3.4 billion euros, compared with an earlier forecast of more than 3.2 billion euros. It also set a 2030 target of 5.9 billion euros in net profit and a net return on tangible equity — profit measured against core shareholder capital — of about 21%.
The Frankfurt-based bank said its “Momentum 2030” plan would lift revenue to 16.8 billion euros by 2030 and argued that UniCredit’s plan remained vague and carried “considerable execution risks.” Commerzbank said shareholders were being asked to give up future gains and control “for no premium.” Commerzbank
UniCredit is offering 0.485 new UniCredit shares for each Commerzbank share, equal to about 31.07 euros a share based on UniCredit’s May 4 closing price, Commerzbank said. That implied an 8.7% discount to Commerzbank’s 34.02-euro close the same day.
Chief Executive Bettina Orlopp has tried to frame the strategy update as a cleaner alternative for investors. In an interview with ZDF, she said Commerzbank could influence what lay within its own control — its strategy — and called UniCredit’s recent critical advertising “an attempt to talk down our valuation.” ZDFheute
UniCredit has presented the bid as a way to break a stalemate, not an immediate grab for control. In March, the Milan-based bank said the offer was meant to exceed the 30% level under German takeover law and “foster constructive engagement,” adding that it expected to cross that mark without taking control. Unicreditgroup
Andrea Orcel, UniCredit’s chief executive, has said the status quo still works for UniCredit if it does not gain control. “By our very presence, we are promoting an improvement of Commerzbank,” he told analysts this week as UniCredit reported a record quarterly profit and raised its own full-year profit goal to at least 11 billion euros. Reuters
The job cuts are not the first round. Commerzbank shed 10,000 staff earlier this decade and last year announced plans to cut another 3,900 jobs; Reuters reported that UniCredit’s own restructuring plan for Commerzbank foresaw 1.3 billion euros in cost efficiencies and 7,000 staff cuts.
German resistance has hardened. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany rejected hostile and aggressive takeovers in banking, while Commerzbank works council chief Sascha Uebel rejected Orcel’s call for renewed talks and urged the German government to consider increasing its stake.
The dispute has also spilled into advertising and regulation. BaFin, Germany’s financial watchdog, barred UniCredit from certain social-media ads against Commerzbank, with ZDF reporting that the regulator criticised their “sensationalist and unsachlich” presentation, meaning inflammatory and not based on objective argument. ZDFheute
There is still a risk that Commerzbank’s defence does not settle the matter. Higher targets depend on stronger revenue, cost cuts and artificial-intelligence-led efficiency gains, and investors may still press the bank to engage if UniCredit improves its terms. WirtschaftsWoche said the new plan was ambitious and not easy to carry out.
For now, the takeover battle has become a test of whether Europe’s bank consolidation can move past national resistance. UniCredit argues bigger lenders are needed in a tougher geopolitical and rate environment; Commerzbank says its role in Germany’s corporate banking market would be weakened under a Milan-led plan. The decision, increasingly, sits with shareholders.
