$BMPS.MI

Monte dei Paschi Nets EUR30.6 Billion Takeover Bid from Intesa After Banco BPM's Merger Proposal

Italian banking giant Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) launched a voluntary public tender and exchange offer worth 30.6 billion euros for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) on Monday, less than a day after rival Banco BPM (BAMI.MI) proposed to hold talks for a "merger of equals" with the target company.Intesa is offering 1.6 newly issued shares and 1 euro per share in cash for each tendered share, implying a valuation of 10.091 euros per Monte dei Paschi share, or a 12.5% premium over the latter's June 5 closing price.With the proposed merger, Intesa anticipates creating the second-largest listed banking group in the eurozone, with a market capitalization of 126 billion euros and 2 trillion euros in wealth management assets by 2029, up from 1.7 trillion euros as of Dec. 31, 2025. By 2029, the combined entity would deliver over 16 billion euros in profit and 2.9 billion euros of revenue and cost synergies per year, Intesa said.If Intesa acquires the entire share capital of Monte dei Paschi or at least a 66.67% stake, it will move to delist the latter from Euronext Milan. Intesa also entered a separate agreement with Unipol Assicurazioni (UNI.MI) to sell certain banking assets of Monte dei Paschi for a cash consideration of up to 3.5 billion euros to proactively manage antitrust issues related to the deal."At face value, the proposed transaction makes long-term strategic sense for ISP, solidifying an already very strong position in its domestic market while adding core capabilities and scale to its Italian and broader European Wealth Management, [Corporate and Investment Banking] and Consumer Finance businesses," RBC Capital Markets said. "The deal's context (with a competing "merger of equals" proposed by Banco BPM with BMPS) and previous expressions by political leaders regarding preferred domestic banking consolidation that explicitly excludes ISP will certainly play a role in the final outcome of the transaction."Earlier, Banco BPM announced a merger proposal with Monte dei Paschi that is projected to create Italy's second-largest banking operator by size, boasting a market capitalization of more than 50 billion euros. The potential deal is anticipated to deliver over 1.1 billion euros in pretax run-rate synergies, Banco BPM said, noting that talks with Monte dei Paschi could commence in the near term.Monte dei Paschi traded over 10% higher in the early morning session, while Intesa was down 4% and BPM dropped 1%.