World's Oldest Bank Launches Bid to Become Italy's Third-Largest Financial Colossus

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), recognized as the world's oldest active bank, has initiated a significant strategic maneuver by launching two public share exchange offers (OPS) targeting Banco BPM and Banca Generali. This ambitious move aims to consolidate its position and emerge as Italy's third-largest banking group by asset volume, trailing only Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit.

The initiative, spearheaded by MPS CEO Luigi Lovaglio, is also seen as a strategic defense against a hostile takeover bid from Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank by market capitalization, which had valued MPS at approximately 30.6 billion euros. The proposed integration seeks to create a "stronger, more competitive, and more resilient" Italian financial group with total financial assets reaching 810 billion euros.

If approved by MPS shareholders at the General Meeting scheduled for October 29, 2026, the transactions are anticipated to be finalized by mid-February 2027. The resulting entity would boast a pro-forma balance sheet of approximately 466 billion euros, with customer loans totaling 245 billion euros and direct funding at 315 billion euros. MPS plans to finance these offers exclusively through newly issued shares, avoiding the use of its existing liquidity.

As a preliminary step, MPS will distribute an extraordinary dividend of 4 billion euros to its current shareholders. This dividend comprises 1 billion euros in cash and 3 billion euros in Generali shares, representing about 4.5% of the insurer's capital. This move is intended to adjust its excess capital and facilitate a cleaner exchange ratio. The integration also builds upon MPS's recent acquisition of a controlling stake in Mediobanca.