By Adria Calatayud


Intesa Sanpaolo said it launched a 30.66 billion-euro ($35.32 billion) takeover bid for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, shortly after Banco BPM made a rival merger proposal.

The approaches pit Italian lenders Intesa and BPM against each other for control of their domestic rival Monte dei Paschi, which is considered the world's oldest bank still in operation, and continue a wave of dealmaking activity in Italy's banking industry.

Intesa said Monday that it offered 1.6 of its own shares and 1 euro in cash for every Monte dei Paschi share, valuing the target at 10.091 euros a share based on Friday closing prices. Intesa said the bid represents a 13% premium to Monte dei Paschi's Friday closing price.

With the offer, Intesa aims to reinforce its position as Italy's biggest bank and create the second-biggest eurozone bank by market value, it said.

The Intesa proposal includes a deal of between 3 billion and 3.5 billion euros with Unipol Assicurazioni for the sale of the Monte dei Paschi brand, 635 branches and associated central operations to run the bank in an independent way, it said. Intesa said this aims to proactively manage antitrust issues.

Intesa said it would retain Mediobanca--which was acquired by Monte dei Paschi last year--and its brand, around 625 Monte dei Paschi branches and a limited part of its central infrastructure. The assets Intesa aims to keep accounted for roughly 80% of the combined net profit for Monte dei Paschi and Mediobanca last year, it said.

Intesa expects 1.5 billion euros in 2029 annual cost savings, 1.4 billion euros in revenue synergies and 2.1 billion euros in pretax integration charges, it said. The bank said it expects around 6,800 voluntary employee exits, including 5,000 from its current operations, and to hire 6,800 young employees.

The Intesa bid came hot on the heels of a rival proposal from BPM, which on Sunday said it had offered Monte dei Paschi to enter into talks for a merger of equals aimed at creating a group with a combined market value of more than 50 billion euros, when including the value of synergies from a potential deal.

Monte dei Paschi didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

BPM didn't disclose financial details, but said its proposed deal would be structured as a typical merger of equals. The combined group would preserve the respective brands, historical headquarters and territorial roots of the two banks and adopt a governance structure based on balance and representativeness, BPM said.

A potential merger between Monte dei Paschi and BPM would create the second-largest domestic bank in Italy by customer loans and deposits, BPM said. It would also broaden the range of strategic options for Monte dei Paschi's stake in Assicurazioni Generali, BPM said.

BPM said the proposed combination would benefit from the complementary territorial footprints of the two banks, result in cost savings of more than 650 million euros and revenue synergies above 450 million euros.

The moves for Monte dei Paschi come at a time when UniCredit, Italy's second-biggest bank, is in the midst of a takeover offer for Germany's Commerzbank. UniCredit last year pursued a takeover of BPM but ended up dropping it after the target rebuffed its approaches and the Italian government imposed conditions on a deal.


Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-08-26 0234ET