Daily Brief Financials: Japan Metropolitan Fund Investment Corporation, Commerzbank AG, New World Development and more

• Japan Metropolitan Fund Investment Corporation (8953 JP) aims to raise around US$140m to partly fund the acquisition of four assets.
• The deal will be relatively small, in terms of ADV and dilution.
• In this note, we will talk about the placement and run the deal through our ECM framework.

• UniCredit SpA (UCG IM) has raised its Commerzbank AG (CBK GR) stake to 21%; Chancellor Scholz called it “hostile takeover”. UniCredit also filed to increase its stake up to 29.9%.
• Commerzbank’s valuation multiples remain attractive, as despite a 21.3% rise in its stock, it still trades at a price-to-book ratio (P/B) of just 0.57x, compared to UniCredit’s 0.98x.
• The conditions remain favorable for a potential premium acquisition by UniCredit, as acquiring Commerzbank makes both strategic and financial sense. Thus I recommend to buy Commerzbank speculatively.

Lucror Analytics Morning Views comprise our fundamental credit analysis, opinions and trade recommendations on high yield issuers in the region, based on key company-specific developments in the past 24 hours. Our Morning Views include a section with a brief market commentary, key market indicators and a macroeconomic and corporate event calendar.

• New World Development