Trade union Verdi's representative on Commerzbank's supervisory board, Stefan Wittman, stated on Wednesday that the union plans to use "all means at our disposal" to prevent Italian lender UniCredit from acquiring a bigger stake in the German lender.

After buying a 4.5% stake in Commerzbank from the German government and acquiring the rest on the market, UniCredit now holds a 9% stake in the German bank and has expressed the intention to further build that stake.

"We do not want to suffer the same fate as Hypovereinsbank (HVB)," Wittman stated, referring to UniCredit's purchase of HVB in 2008, after which its number of employees was cut from 26,000 at the time of acquisition to under 10,000 at the end of 2023.

Commerzbank shares soared more than 18% following the UniCredit stake announcement.