The government said it won’t offload any additional shares in the bank following the sale to UniCredit for €702 million. The move marks an U-turn for the government.

By Tom Sims and Christian Kraemer FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Commerzbank employees and a prominent labour union on Friday called on the German government to oppose a takeover of the German lender by Italy's UniCredit as workers fear massive job losses if a deal goes through.

UniCredit SpA has demonstrated at its existing German unit that it can cut costs in the country, which bodes well for its potential plans for Commerzbank AG, analysts at KBW wrote in a note.