Intesa Sanpaolo announced an unsolicited cash-and-share bid worth €30.6 billion (about US$35 billion) to acquire Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) on Monday, offering a 12.5% premium over MPS’s closing market value of €27.4 billion last Friday [1, 2, 3].
If successful, Intesa plans to sell a banking unit including 635 MPS branches and the MPS brand to insurer Unipol, allowing it to focus on wealth management and insurance, its core strategy [1, 2].
MPS was bailed out by the Italian government in 2017 before being reprivatised in 2023-2024 [1, 2, 3]. In 2025, MPS acquired Mediobanca and became the largest shareholder in Italian insurer Generali [1, 2, 3]. Intesa had previously sought to buy Generali in 2017 but shifted to building insurance internally [1, 2].
The proposed merger would create the eurozone’s second-largest bank by market capitalization at €126 billion, second only to Spain’s Santander [2, 3]. Intesa projects combined net income of €16 billion by 2029, up from €13.6 billion in 2025 [2].
On Sunday, Banco BPM’s board unanimously approved seeking merger talks with MPS, proposing a merger of equals. Intesa’s bid directly challenges Banco BPM’s plan to merge with MPS [1, 2, 3]. Following the bid announcement, Intesa’s shares fell 4%, Banco BPM’s fell 1.1%, while MPS shares rose 0.9% [3].
France’s Credit Agricole, Banco BPM’s main shareholder, said it was "interested in analyzing value creation opportunities which can strengthen BPM" [3].
Negotiations and decisions on the competing offers are expected in the coming weeks as shareholders and regulators review the proposals.
