Italy's Unicredit raises stake in Germany's Commerzbank to 21%

Italy's Unicredit announced on Monday that it has boosted its stake in Commerzbank to around 21% through the purchase of financial instruments relating to 11.5% of the shares in Germany's second-largest bank.

The Milan-based international bank has also requested permission from Germany's financial authorities to raise its stake to 29.9%.

"UniCredit believes that there is substantial value that can be unlocked within Commerzbank, either standalone or within UniCredit, for the benefit of Germany and the bank's wider stakeholders," Unicredit said in a statement.

It added that this potential required action for it to be crystallized.

The German government announced on Friday that it did not intend for the present to reduce its stake in Commerzbank, acquired when the bank encountered problems during the financial crisis.

Unicredit bought shares in Commerzbank disposed of by the German state earlier this month.