Intesa makes €31-bn bid for MPS amid merger ferment

Intesa Sanpaolo announced Monday that

it was making a bid of close to €31 billion for Monte dei Paschi

di Siena (MPS) to form the eurozone's second-largest bank amid

merger ferment in the Italian finance sector.

At the weekend another Italian lender, Banco BPM, said it would

invite MPS, which acquired merchant bank Mediobanca last year,

to discuss a "merger of equals".

BPM had recently been the target of a takeover bid by UniCredit,

Italy's second-largest bank, although the operation fell through

following the Italian government's controversial use of golden

powers.

Intesa said Monday that it was offering 16 of its shares for

every 10 MPS shares as well as €1.0 in cash for every MPS share

tendered, with a 12.5% premium with respect to Friday's closing

price, for a total overall outlay of €30.6 billion.

Italy's biggest bank said the merged group would have 3,000

branches and a capitalisation of €126 billion, making it the

eurozone's second biggest lender after Spain's Santander.

Intesa added that it has reached an agreement with insurance

group Unipol, the biggest shareholder in another bank, BPER

Banca, to sell a "banking legal entity comprising the MPS brand"

and around 635 MPS branches in order to avoid problems with the

Antitrust authorities.

It said that its board has approved the acquisition of a 3.01%

stake in Italian insurance giant Generali as part of its bid for

MPS.

The takeover of Mediobanca had made MPS, which was re-privatised

in 2023-2024 following a 2017 State bailout, although the

Treasury still has a stake of close to 5% in it, the biggest

shareholder of Generali.

UniCredit also has a major stake in Generali.

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