Italian banking giant UniCredit was again criticized on Thursday for its aggressive pursuit of Commerzbank, as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the approach “is how trust is destroyed.”

The Milan-based UniCredit formally launched its hostile takeover bid for Commerzbank on Tuesday after months of manoeuvring and fierce resistance from the German side.

Italy’s second-largest bank is already the leading shareholder in Commerzbank with a stake of 25%. The German government holds a roughly 12% stake.

“That is no way to treat institutions such as a German bank, Commerzbank,” Merz said in a speech to business leaders in Berlin.

“That is how trust is destroyed, not built.”

In his comments on Thursday, Merz sought to reconcile his government’s vehement opposition to Unicredit’s takeover bid with Berlin’s broader support for greater integration of financial markets across the European Union.

“Yes, we need large banks in Europe for complex financing, for IPOs, for support. Investment hubs worldwide also need large banks. But that doesn’t mean that every kind of takeover is welcome without restriction,” Merz said.

“We firmly reject hostile and aggressive approaches.”

UniCredit has tried to woo Commerzbank shareholders with promises of higher returns by narrowing its focus to the German market to spur faster growth.

The takeover bid is worth roughly 35 billion euros ($41 billion) based on UniCredit’s current share value.

But Commerzbank has accused its Italian rival of “misleading characterisations” in the fight.

Commerzbank executives contend the Unicredit bid undervalues the bank, and described a strategy outline from Unicredit last month as “a speculative attempt to dismantle Commerzbank’s successful business model.”

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Turkish businesspeople came together with representatives from U.S. states during the SelectUSA Investment Summit this week to explore investment opportunities across sectors ranging from renewable energy and robotics to health care technology and dental services.

The summit, held on May 3-6 in Maryland near Washington, brought together thousands of participants, including investors, economic development officials and industry experts from over 100 countries.

More than 30 Turkish companies attended the event.

Tarık Sarvan, chairperson of leading Turkish solar technology company CW Enerji, said the firm exports around $5 million-$6 million worth of products monthly from Türkiye to the U.S. and is considering investment opportunities on a state-by-state basis.

“We are trying to create a gateway where we can sell our products,” he said, stressing that production would remain in Türkiye while potential U.S. operations would focus on assembly and sales.

Bakit Baydaliev, CEO of technology firm DOF Robotics, said the U.S. already accounts for 40% of the company’s market and that the share is growing steadily. The company plans to expand its immersive entertainment businesses across multiple U.S. states, including in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

RealWorks Product and Marketing Director Fulya Bayram said the company aims to expand the U.S. footprint of its AI-powered health care platform HaloScape and strengthen ties with state officials and major firms such as Nvidia.

“Our goal this year is to slightly increase our market share in the U.S., strengthen Türkiye’s representation here and build close relationships with the states,” she said.

Other Turkish firms attending the summit included dental technology startup dentalPrices and software company IWRobotx, both of which said they view the US market as key to global expansion.

Dr. Efe Çelebi, founder of the dental clinic chain Dentgroup, said his company dentalPrices has expanded into Europe with operations in Budapest and is now planning to enter the U.S. market by the end of the year.

Juliet Abdel, president of the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, said the company offers foreign investors lower business costs, affordable living and strong transportation access as a Midwestern hub, with growth potential in aerospace and avionics, the bioeconomy and technology.

“The industries which really overlap with our interests were energy, defense and manufacturing … I’ll continue following up on the opportunities that came up in our one-on-one meetings,” she said about her meetings with investors.

Chris Chung, CEO of The Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, described Turkish companies as “globally minded.”

“Türkiye is a big market in and of itself, but there’s a lot of opportunities sitting outside of Türkiye, including to both sell and produce products in the United States, and that’s where the intersection of opportunity sits for us,” he said.

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Danish shipping group Maersk beat first-quarter profit forecasts on Thursday and maintained its full-year earnings ⁠guidance, even as it warned that the Iran war had clouded ⁠the outlook for freight rates and costs.

Shares in Maersk were down 3.3% at 7:38 a.m. GMT following the results, underperforming a broadly flat Copenhagen benchmark index amid ​worries that high fuel prices could hit profits.

Maersk, which ​is ⁠viewed as a bellwether for global trade, still projects global container volume growth of between 2% and 4% this year but said the situation remained volatile.

“The outlook for global container demand in 2026 is highly uncertain. Higher energy prices and constraints on trade in the Upper Gulf region, which in 2025 accounted for around 6% of global container trade, pose downside risks to the growth momentum,” it said in a statement.

Profit down but beats forecasts

Maersk’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the January to March period were $1.73 billion, compared to a median forecast of $1.66 billion in a company-provided poll of 10 ⁠analysts, ⁠but well below the $2.71 billion for the same period a year ago.

The first quarter does not capture the Iran war’s full impact on global supply chains, as it began on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran.

The war has disrupted shipping routes after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, pushing up costs such as fuel.

Maersk said freight rates fell during the quarter due to continued capacity oversupply before rising sharply toward the end of the period after ⁠the outbreak of the war.

Some analysts have warned, however, that the conflict could weigh on Maersk’s earnings, as freight rates on the Asia-Europe route have nearly returned to pre-war levels while fuel costs remain elevated.

“We ​continue to see an increased likelihood of a downward adjustment later in the year, as freight ​rate developments are not expected to be able to compensate for the higher fuel costs,” Jyske Bank analyst Haider Anjum said in a research note.

Maersk said ⁠operational disruptions ‌combined with ‌higher fuel prices were expected to increase costs, which it ⁠was working to pass on to customers.

The Middle East ‌situation also impacts shipping in the Red Sea, forcing Maersk to continue to reroute vessels around Africa, away from ​the Suez Canal and the ⁠Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

This marked an abrupt stop to Maersk’s tentative ⁠efforts for a gradual return of some services to the Suez route, seen as ⁠a key step toward ending ​years of global trade disruption caused by attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

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Exports from Türkiye’s defense and aerospace sectors have exceeded $2.8 billion in the first four months of the year, jumping 28% from the same period last year, a top official said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at the SAHA 2026 International Defense and Aerospace Exhibition in Istanbul, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said exports had climbed from $248 million over the past two decades to $10.05 billion last year alone.

“This year, we have a 28% increase in the first four months. We topped $2.8 billion,” Bolat said, recalling that last year the sector passed the $10 billion export threshold for the first time.

The defense fair, organized by SAHA Istanbul, Türkiye’s and Europe’s largest industrial cluster in the defense, aviation and space sectors, is being held at a wide area of Istanbul Expo Center and it runs through Saturday.

Bolat described SAHA 2026 as one of Türkiye’s most advanced fairs in industry and technology, saying the event showcases the country’s strongest products in industry, technology, science and telecommunications.

He said the fair, which has “prestigious fair” status supported by the Trade Ministry, has filled its entire exhibition area of 100,000 square meters (over 1 million square feet).

Some 8,000 professional visitors from abroad registered for the event, while more than 100 delegations are holding procurement talks, according to Bolat.

“More than $10 billion in contracts are expected to be signed by our companies. This is a very valuable fair for the Turkish industry, defense industry, and aviation industry,” he furthered.

Strong demand for Turkish products

Bolat also pointed out that Türkiye’s defense and aviation ecosystem includes 3,500 companies and nearly 100,000 highly qualified workers and research and development personnel.

He added that the sector “has a project backlog worth $100 billion,” while it “contributes $20 billion to Türkiye’s national income.”

“Major brand organizations in the main structure have thousands of companies below them producing products. In this sense, Türkiye is ensuring a brain gain for our country from abroad,” he said.

Bolat also said there is strong foreign demand for Turkish defense and aviation products.

He said he met Stephen Fuhr, Canada’s minister of state for defense procurement, who visited the fair with a strong delegation. “He expressed they came here to increase cooperation with Türkiye in defense and aviation, both at the government level and company level,” he added.

Military officials, procurement executives, and experts from many countries are attending the fair, Bolat suggested.

Moreover, he said Türkiye exported $3.7 billion worth of rockets, missiles, and smart munitions last year, as well as $2.1 billion worth of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Türkiye is also strong in land vehicles and has made progress in areas including air defense systems and “Steel Dome”-type systems, Bolat said.

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The fuel tax relief mechanism Türkiye introduced to cushion households and businesses from an energy shock triggered by the Middle East conflict has cost the government around $2 billion in its first two months of implementation, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Energy prices spiraled following U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, which prompted a near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s oil normally flows. Stalled shipments through the waterway have sent prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products.

To mitigate the impact, Turkish authorities implemented a “sliding scale” system, which adjusts the special consumption tax (OTV) on fuel products according to changes in oil prices to prevent excessive price rises.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said the mechanism had limited the pass-through from higher crude oil prices to domestic fuel prices and helped contain inflation.

“The cost to us in the first two months was TL 90 billion. This is a significant figure, around $2 billion,” Şimşek told the public broadcaster TRT Haber.

“If similar conditions persist throughout the year, the impact would be around TL 600 billion, corresponding to roughly $13 billion-$14 billion at current prices,” he said.

Without the measure, however, Şimşek said inflation would have risen much more sharply.

“Had we not activated the sliding scale mechanism, the increase in inflation would have been far more dramatic. The current reflection is not even at one-third. Therefore, we have also limited the rise in inflation,” he said.

The pricing pressures from the fallout of the war still impacted Türkiye’s inflation, which rose to 32.37% in April, the highest measure since October 2025. Şimşek said the rise would be temporary.

Had it not been for the sliding scale system, diesel prices in Türkiye could have reached as high as TL 90 per liter, compared with below TL 73 now, while gasoline prices would have been around TL 79 lira instead of roughly TL 65, the minister noted.

“A significant portion of the shock has not been passed on to our citizens, companies, industrialists or small businesses,” Şimşek said.

Effects ‘manageable’

Türkiye is a major energy importer that neighbors Iran and is among the most exposed emerging market economies to the global energy price surge. But officials have touted Türkiye’s “manageable” 10% dependence on Middle East oil and the country’s protective diversification steps.

Şimşek said Türkiye was facing the effects of the supply shock, though he stressed the country was not facing an energy supply disruption.

“The increase in fuel prices will cause an additional deficit in the external balance. It has an inflationary effect. All of these are facts. We are not on a separate planet,” he noted.

“There is a very large supply shock in the world, and this will affect Türkiye.”

Every 10% increase in oil prices directly adds around 1.1 percentage points to inflation and lifts the current account deficit by $3 billion-$4 billion, while a similar rise in natural gas prices could add another $5 billion, said Şimşek.

“If oil rises to $95 from $65, that would create an additional deficit of around $15 billion,” he said. “This doesn’t include tourism, but let me say this clearly: the effects will be manageable.”

Şimşek said the government’s improved fiscal position had enabled it to absorb part of the shock.

“Had we not restored fiscal discipline, implemented savings measures and controlled spending, we would not have had the ability to do this,” he said.

He reiterated that the government’s top priority remained disinflation and tackling the cost of living.

“We want to preserve the disinflation process at all costs,” Simsek said. “There is no hesitation on this matter.”

He said Türkiye had initially expected inflation to fall to around or below 20% this year, but the latest energy shock could keep it somewhat higher.

He said the budget deficit could rise from 3.5% to 4% of gross domestic product, while a 1-2 percentage point increase in the current account deficit-to-GDP ratio would remain manageable.

Simsek said Türkiye had entered the regional crisis from a stronger position, citing a significant buildup in foreign exchange reserves since mid-2023.

“We have accumulated very substantial reserves, which also helped us get through this shock without really feeling its impact,” he noted.

“This year, we are aiming to focus strongly and bring inflation back down to the 20s.”

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Turkish drone powerhouse Baykar on Wednesday signed an agreement to sell its Bayraktar Kızılelma unmanned combat aircraft to Indonesia.

The deal marks the first export contract for what Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar said is one of the world’s first unmanned fighter jet technologies.

It covers a delivery of a fleet of 12 Kızılelma aircraft, starting in 2028. The agreement also includes an additional option for four more fleets, Bayraktar told the signing ceremony at the SAHA 2026 defense fair.

Alongside system procurement, the deal also includes the establishment in Indonesia of production and maintenance centers.

The agreement was signed by Bayraktar and Norman Joesoef, chair of Indonesian defense group Republikorp.

Bayraktar described the agreement as a “historic” deal for both Baykar and Türkiye’s defense industry.

“Bayraktar Kızılelma, one of the world’s first unmanned fighter jet technologies, made its first flight in 2022. Since then, intensive flight activities have continued,” he said.

Baykar aims to place Kızılelma into service for Türkiye this year, he added.

Kızılelma would be the third Baykar platform Indonesia will add to its portfolio following earlier deals for Bayraktar Akıncı and TB2 drones.

Republikorp’s Joesoef said the company looked forward to continuing cooperation between the two sides.

Kızılelma will stand out with its low radar visibility and high maneuverability. With a maximum takeoff weight of 8.5 tons and a payload capacity of 1.5 tons, the aircraft can preserve its stealth characteristics thanks to its internal weapons bay.

The jet is said to be the first unmanned combat aircraft in the history of aviation to shoot down an aerial target detected by its own radar system (AESA) using its own domestically produced air-to-air missile.

With AI-supported autonomous formation flight and smart fleet operations, it is seen shaping the future doctrine of aerial warfare.

Separately at the SAHA fair, Turkish defense electronics company Aselsan signed two contracts with Indonesian authorities covering the use of its technologies by Indonesia’s military.

The agreements include unmanned naval vehicle payloads for the Indonesian Navy and mission-critical communication systems for the Indonesian Armed Forces.

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