The Italian lender now owns around 20% of Commerzbank’s shares and is the largest shareholder of the bank it hopes to engineer a merger with.

German lender Commerzbank said Wednesday it was committed to its strategy after Italian bank UniCredit formally upped its stake in its rival, laying the ground for a potential takeover bid.

Frankfurt-based Commerzbank aims to issue an SRT tied to €2 billion ($2.4 billion) of loans, according to the people, who asked not to be named.

UniCredit has no plans to heed the advice of the German government to drop its ambitions to take over Commerzbank , the Italian bank's CEO was quoted as saying on Friday.

A German finance ministry said on Wednesday that the government remains opposed to a possible takeover bid by UniCredit for Commerzbank , after the Italian bank took a bigger stake in its German ...

MILAN (Reuters) -UniCredit increased its shareholding in Commerzbank to 20%, giving the Italian lender a bigger stake in the German competitor as it seeks to win over opposition to a possible ...

UniCredit eventually intends to control around 29% of Commerzbank voting rights by converting the remaining 9% in financial instruments it holds into physical shares, it added.