Our Story

metronuclear LLC is a deep value social impact principal investment partnership that awaits then exploits market dislocations, uses algorithms to make investment decisions, and engages management teams to reduce price-value gaps and to improve social impact and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Originally established to supply physical uranium concentrates to US nuclear plants receiving state-level subsidies, metronuclear invests in systemically important public companies that are overlooked and undervalued.

Our Journey

Our founder pioneered uranium trading at two global investment banks and later launched metronuclear when New York and Illinois approved annual ratepayer subsidies for nuclear power plants. We have engaged practically every corporate owner of a nuclear power plant fleet in America. In each case, metronuclear was singularly responsible for the owner’s nuclear fuel team meeting its diversity team for the first time ever. While waiting for these corporate owners to make their nuclear fuel supply chains more diverse, inclusive, and thus more resilient, we pivoted to deep value investments, and specifically European bank shares (and/or proxies thereof) that traded at historically large discounts to their tangible net asset value.

Our Investments

metronuclear’s main investment is in Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Germany’s second-largest private bank. Commerzbank is the market leader in Mittelstand lending, a pioneer in the field of sustainable finance, and the parent of leading digital bank-broker comdirect. Its mBank subsidiary is Poland’s fifth-largest bank. And its CommerzVentures venture capital platform has invested successfully at an early stage in fintech unicorns. metronuclear correctly anticipated Commerzbank’s reascension to Germany’s DAX 40 blue-chip index and the subsequent positive re-rating of the bank’s shares by the sell-side equity analyst community.

We have initiated a constructive dialogue with Commerzbank and are fully supportive of its management team and corporate strategy. metronuclear introduced the #BetOnBettina hashtag to social media in support of Commerzbank’s dynamic Chief Executive Officer, whose candidacy for the role metronuclear publicly supported with mentions in the German press.

In the first nine months of 2024, Commerzbank earned 1.9 billion euros in profits and achieved a return on tangible equity of around 9 percent. Against the backdrop of a robust Tier 1 common equity (CET1) ratio of 14.8 percent that exceeds minimum requirements by a healthy 451 basis points and is amongst the highest in the bank’s European bank peer group, the bank has indicated that profits will not accrue to CET1 during 2024, which in turn signals that it may opt to pay out its entire profit for the year as capital returns to shareholders.

In September 2024, the German government announced that it will sell its stake in Commerzbank in a transparent, non-discriminatory, and market-friendly manner, in accordance with European Union law. UniCredit SpA, Italy’s second-largest bank, announced that it had acquired a 4.49 percent stake in Commerzbank from the German government and a similar amount in the open market for a total stake of around 9 percent. UniCredit also stated that it is engaging Commerzbank to explore “value-creating opportunities for all stakeholders of both banks.” UniCredit’s Chief Executive Officer then stated that an outright merger or acquisition is a clear possibility. The European Central Bank, which is the regulator of both Commerzbank and UniCredit, then stated that cross-border bank consolidation is important and that it hopes for continued near-term progress on same. The German Finance Minister then stated that the government is not a long-term shareholder of Commerzbank and that it must sell its stake in the market without discrimination, which in our view should not exclude UniCredit as a prospective buyer. The German government then announced that it would pause further sales of Commerzbank shares until further notice. Media reports suggested this pause is attributable to UniCredit’s emergence as a prospective strategic buyer of Commerzbank. metronuclear believes the German government’s maintenance of a stake in Commerzbank until further notice is antithetical to and incompatible with the bank’s independence. Partial government ownership suggests a need for protection which we believe is unwarranted for a bank the government itself describes as a stable and profitable institute. UniCredit then announced that using derivatives it had acquired an additional 11.5 percent stake in Commerzbank, raising its overall economic stake to around 21 percent, making it Commerzbank’s single largest shareholder. The German Finance Ministry then stated that the German government does not support a UniCredit takeover of Commerzbank, and that it had communicated this sentiment to UniCredit. The German government itself then stated that it has no legal powers to block a UniCredit takeover of Commerzbank. The European Central Bank has regulatory authority over major banks in the European Union, not national governments. A major private shareholder of Commerzbank then publicly stated that Commerzbank should meet with UniCredit with an open mind. Commerzbank then issued a strategy update raising its return on tangible equity target for 2027 to 12 percent and guiding towards the payout of more than 90 percent of its earnings (net of AT1 coupons) as either share buybacks or dividends starting in 2025. Commerzbank then agreed to meet with UniCredit for the first time following the latter’s investment in the former. Media reports suggested Commerzbank would further optimize its risk-weighted assets through (amongst other measures) synthetic risk transfers to unlock additional capital for distribution to shareholders and for acquisitions. UniCredit then published four slides tactically dismantling the main concerns raised about a potential merger, underscoring its superior efficiency, profitability, and capitalization, plus its existing presence in Germany. UniCredit’s CEO commented that consideration of a merger with Commerzbank may take up to one year to fully engage all stakeholders. Commerzbank’s CEO then stated that UniCredit had requested another meeting with Commerzbank. In November 2024, the German government collapsed and subsequently announced snap elections in February 2025. UniCredit then made a voluntary public offer for Banco BPM, the third-largest bank in Italy. The move ostensibly makes a UniCredit takeover of Commerzbank less likely in the near term.

metronuclear is fully supportive of Commerzbank’s CEO and very clearly favors the outcome of the engagement between Commerzbank and UniCredit that creates the greatest value for Commerzbank shareholders on an after-tax basis. We believe the most expedient means by which Commerzbank can dispatch UniCredit and ultimately remain independent is selling mBank. We believe non-commercial means such as drawing upon the patriotic sympathies of employees, clients, and politicians will fall flat with shareholders seeking to maximize investment returns. (We note the German government does not appear to be this kind of shareholder.) mBank has zero synergies with Commerzbank’s core German franchise and should be sold as a noncore asset in our view. Commerzbank should use the net sales proceeds of an mBank sale to finance a “super-buyback” of its own shares. A super-buyback would likely satisfy return-maximizing shareholders and raise Commerzbank’s share price to levels UniCredit may not wish to pay. UniCredit itself may be a potential buyer of mBank on a standalone basis. Poland is a gaping hole in UniCredit’s so-called Pan-European federalist coverage model as it has zero presence in the country after selling Bank Pekao in 2017. Critically, the market value of Commerzbank’s economic stake in mBank is around the same as the market value of UniCredit’s economic stake in Commerzbank (around 3.5 billion euros). To secure its independence from UniCredit, Commerzbank could offer to swap its mBank shares for UniCredit’s Commerzbank shares.

Our Team

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Roy Adams

  • Founder and Chief Investment Officer of metronuclear
    • Originates, executes, and manages partnership’s deep value investments
    • Performs research function for geopolitics, macroeconomics, equities, and commodities
    • Engages management teams of target companies to measurably improve diversity and social impact
    • Scaled partnership’s investment in Commerzbank shares during extreme volatility events
    • Developed partnership’s deep value algorithms and uranium term and option pricing models
  • Pioneered uranium trading at Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers in UK and US with customers spanning 5 continents
    • Financial Times: Adams left Deutsche Bank to work with two non-profits and later to invest privately in uranium-linked and European bank shares
    • Reuters: Deutsche Bank’s global uranium trading business was long-term supplier of uranium to utilities, profitable each year of its existence, and later sold to Australian bank Macquarie
    • Originated and executed first-ever long-term physical uranium supply contract between a bank and a nuclear utility
    • Traded first-ever financially-settled uranium swap with institutional investors
    • Arranged first-ever financially-settled uranium swap with a nuclear utility, covering a quarter of its annual fuel requirements
  • Graduate of NYC public schools, Mathematics and Science for Minority Students Program at Phillips Academy Andover, Yale College, and Tuck School of Business (Edward Tuck Scholar)