FRANKFURT, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Bettina Orlopp will take

over as chief executive officer of Germany's Commerzbank

in the near future, the bank announced on Tuesday,

making her one of the country's highest-profile bankers during a

tumultuous time for its No. 2 lender.

The development comes as the bank fends off advances from

Italian bank UniCredit, which has acquired a sizeable

stake in Commerzbank and wants to explore a takeover.

Orlopp, currently the bank's chief financial officer, will

take over from Manfred Knof, who had announced earlier this

month that he would step down as CEO at the end of 2025.

But his announcement came just hours before UniCredit

revealed it was building a stake in Commerzbank, raising

questions about whether he was best placed to lead talks on any

tie-up.

Orlopp, who had also served as Commerzbank's deputy CEO,

last week said the government should hold on to its remaining

12% stake in Commerzbank after UniCredit began purchasing

shares.

"We have all been very surprised by the process," Orlopp

told journalists in Berlin. "That's why the most important thing

now is simply to sort it out calmly, to think about what's on

the table now and how to deal with it."

Orlopp assumed her current role in 2020 during another

trying period for the bank when the U.S. investor Cerberus, a

major shareholder at the time, revolted and pressed for changes

in the bank's strategy and management.

The CEO decision came amid a two-day meeting of the bank's

supervisory and management boards outside Frankfurt.

(Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Chris Steitz, Tomasz

Janowski and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)