Andrea Orcel Is Back Shaking Up German Banking, This Time as CEO

The last time Andrea Orcel was involved in a major deal for UniCredit SpA in Germany, he was 42.

Working at Merrill Lynch & Co in 2005, Orcel advised the Italian bank on its €19.2 billion takeover of HVB Group, Europe’s biggest-ever cross-border banking takeover at the time.

Read the story from 2005: Merrill Among Banks Sharing $50 Million on UniCredito-HVB Deal

Now 61 and running UniCredit as chief executive officer, Orcel has returned to German bank consolidation with a move on Commerzbank AG, building a 9% stake in the country’s second-biggest listed lender.

Andrea Orcel

Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg

That career trajectory underlines ...