Chief executive of UniCredit, Italy's second-biggest bank. In September 2024 Orcel began building a stake in Commerzbank, Germany's second-biggest listed lender. In May 2026 he made a lowball bid for the rest of the bank, at a price 8% below the previous close, betting Commerzbank's share price would slide and he could buy more cheaply later. Earlier UniCredit had published a 34-page plan calling Commerzbank "vulnerable", "underperforming", "risky" and "overvalued", drawing a rebuke from BaFin, Germany's financial watchdog, which ordered the Italians to cease "sensationalist and irrelevant" advertisements.
Do not throw cigarette butts in the urinal, for they are subtle and quick to anger.