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(Bloomberg) -- Commerzbank AG stepped up its rhetoric against the approach from UniCredit SpA, further complicating the situation for the Italian lender.

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UniCredit’s strategy of buying and expanding a stake in the lender while considering a takeover bid is “hostile,” a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement Wednesday. It’s the first time Commerzbank has used that term in relation to UniCredit’s approach.

The comments increase tensions that have been simmering since UniCredit first unveiled a stake in September. While Commerzbank’s leadership including Chief Executive Officer Bettina Orlopp have so far signaled skepticism about the benefits of a deal involving UniCredit, they have stopped short from outright opposition.

In the statement Wednesday, Commerzbank said it’s still open “to engage in discussions” with UniCredit once the Italian bank puts forward an offer. “However, we have not received any proposal yet,” it said in the statement.

UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel has successively expanded the lender’s holding in Commerzbank over the past months. He’s largely relied on derivatives to take control of about 28% in the German bank in a move that has angered the German government — and Commerzbank.

Speaking on Bloomberg TV on Tuesday, Orcel said he’d been surprised by the backlash that his approach on Commerzbank has created. He said there had been various meetings with both the German government and Commerzbank executives previous to buying the stake, in which UniCredit indicated its interest in the German bank. The comments were an apparent effort to show that the move shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

“There were no talks between UniCredit and Commerzbank management about a potential combination in the last two years before UniCredit’s investment,” the Commerzbank spokeswoman said in the statement on Wednesday.

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