Tom Sims, Matthias Inverardi and Tilman Blasshofer

Wiesbaden (Reuters) - The CEO of Commerzbank and hundreds of employees expressed support for Germany's lender independence strategy during a meeting on Thursday and stepped up efforts to withstand the advancements of Italy's UniCredit.

About 200 Commerzbank employees gathered outside the annual shareholders' venue, marked "Strong, Independent" and "No to Unicredit".

"Our focus is on ourselves and our independence strategy," Commerzbank CEO Bettina Olopp told Reuters shortly before the meeting began.

“We don’t need to be constantly disturbed from the outside,” she added.

Unicredit shares are nearly 10%, making it the second largest shareholder of Commerzbank after the German government. Last year, it began pushing for potential pan-European bank mergers, shocking German companies and political institutions.

Unicredit's interest quickly attracted the attention of employees and senior officials in the management and German government.

Verdi Alliance leader Kevin Voss said he was worried that he would significantly reduce his job in the acquisition.

Unicreit CEO Andrea Orcel's pursuit of Commerzbank has become Germany's determination to boycott foreign suitors and prevent its loss of one of the few large commercial banks remaining in its financial center in Frankfurt.

Unicredit declined to comment on the protests and how to vote at shareholder meetings.

Major shareholders spoke on Thursday to support Commerzbank's strategy and did not publicly call for talks with UniCredit.

But Hendrik Schmidt, fund manager DWS, said cooperation “should not be taboo.”

Alexandra Annecke said in the fund manager union investment that Commerzbank is valued at a higher valuation that could help it "a more strategic choice."

Last week, Commerzbank reported that net profit in the first quarter rose nearly 12% in the first quarter despite huge challenges to the German economy.

Andreas Thomae of Deka Investment praised Commerzbank for its great stride in increasing profits and warned that Unicredit takeover should not be done “at any price.”

Klaus Nieding of shareholders' lobby group DSW said he was firmly opposed to the acquisition.

“The big McGell used to be seldom rewarded for U.S. shareholders,” he said.

(Other reports by Timm Reichert; edited by Friederike Heine, Emelia Sithole-Armarise and Tomasz Janowski)