The board of Italy's third-largest and the world's oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), on Thursday approved CEO Luigi Lovaglio's proposals for two defensive share swaps to fend off a 30.6 billion unsolicited takeover bid by Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo, financial sources said.
    The swaps would be with Italy's fourth biggest banl Banco BPM and with the wealth manager of Italy's top insurer Generali, Banca Generali.
    Lovaglio recently railed against Intesa Sanpaolo's bid to take over his bank in a conference call with investors after it posted a better-than-expected first-half net profit of 1.1 billion euros, up 25.3% on the equivalent period in 2025.
    Lovaglio said MPS was working with advisors to find alternatives to Intesa's takeover, which, if it goes through, would see a "banking legal entity comprising the MPS brand" and around 635 MPS branches sold to insurance group Unipol in order to avoid problems with the Antitrust authorities.
    "MPS is a strategic asset for the Italian economy.

It is an important economic infrastructure for the country and has a systemic value that derives from the integrity of the bank itself," Lovaglio told the analysts.
    "If you split a power plant in two, both parts might still be able to survive, but you risk a loss of power and a reduction in the ability to deliver energy where it's needed.
    "It works the same way for banks".
    He said the takeover may also be bad in the long term for Intesa.
    "A national champion should strengthen the country's competitive fabric, not diminish it," Lovaglio said.
    "Otherwise, the crown may become larger, but the kingdom will become smaller.
    "This is why the board of directors, with the support of its advisors, will continue its independent and rigorous analysis, with the clear objective of identifying the optimal path that maximizes value for all MPS stakeholders while preserving the integrity of the franchise".
    Last year MPS, which was bailed out by the State in 2017 and re-privatized during 2023 and 2024, with the Treasury's stake now down to 5%, successfully took over premier Italian merchant bank Mediobanca.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni has come out against MPS being "dismembered" by the sale of the 635 branches to Unipol.
    on Thursday the head of the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in Tuscany welcomed Meloni's stance but said he wanted to see what it would amount to in concrete terms.
    "Meloni said she hopes MPS 'will not end up dismembered, losing its name and identity.' This has also been our position, and has always been the case.

The board of Italy's third-largest and the world's oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), on Thursday approved CEO Luigi Lovaglio's proposals for two defensive share swaps to fend off a 30.6 billion unsolicited takeover bid by Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo, financial sources said.
    The swaps would be with Italy's fourth biggest banl Banco BPM and with the wealth manager of Italy's top insurer Generali, Banca Generali.
    Lovaglio recently railed against Intesa Sanpaolo's bid to take over his bank in a conference call with investors after it posted a better-than-expected first-half net profit of 1.1 billion euros, up 25.3% on the equivalent period in 2025.
    Lovaglio said MPS was working with advisors to find alternatives to Intesa's takeover, which, if it goes through, would see a "banking legal entity comprising the MPS brand" and around 635 MPS branches sold to insurance group Unipol in order to avoid problems with the Antitrust authorities.
    "MPS is a strategic asset for the Italian economy.

It is an important economic infrastructure for the country and has a systemic value that derives from the integrity of the bank itself," Lovaglio told the analysts.
    "If you split a power plant in two, both parts might still be able to survive, but you risk a loss of power and a reduction in the ability to deliver energy where it's needed.
    "It works the same way for banks".
    He said the takeover may also be bad in the long term for Intesa.
    "A national champion should strengthen the country's competitive fabric, not diminish it," Lovaglio said.
    "Otherwise, the crown may become larger, but the kingdom will become smaller.
    "This is why the board of directors, with the support of its advisors, will continue its independent and rigorous analysis, with the clear objective of identifying the optimal path that maximizes value for all MPS stakeholders while preserving the integrity of the franchise".
    Last year MPS, which was bailed out by the State in 2017 and re-privatized during 2023 and 2024, with the Treasury's stake now down to 5%, successfully took over premier Italian merchant bank Mediobanca.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni has come out against MPS being "dismembered" by the sale of the 635 branches to Unipol.
    on Thursday the head of the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in Tuscany welcomed Meloni's stance but said he wanted to see what it would amount to in concrete terms.
    "Meloni said she hopes MPS 'will not end up dismembered, losing its name and identity.' This has also been our position, and has always been the case.

We welcomed the Prime Minister's words with interest, but we're waiting to see what they will achieve," Emiliano Fossi, MP and secretary of the Tuscan branch of the Democratic Party, told ANSA.
    Regarding the countermoves under consideration by the MPS board of directors, he said: "We're waiting to see what it will achieve, but we're convinced by the project that CEO Lovaglio has always supported: maintaining the bank's identity, without selling it off and breaking it up."
   

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