Intesa Sanpaolo presses on the accelerator to take control of Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The Board of Directors of the institute led by Carlo Messina met in an extraordinary manner to develop a strategic relaunch of the public purchase and exchange offer, increasing the cash component to definitively convince the Sienese shareholders.
It could be the last chance for the Tuscan bank, after which it seems that the Turin group will leave the field to other possible interlocutors, Banco Bpm and Generali.
The MPS counteroffensive and the Lovaglio plan
The situation heated up in August following the move of the institute’s CEO, Luigi Lovaglio, who promoted a counter-offensive to preserve the autonomy of the Sienese group.
To avoid the effects of the competing proposal, which envisaged the sale of 635 branches to Unipol-Bper, the Montepaschi Board of Directors had approved the green light for two separate offers to acquire Banco Bpm and Banca Generali.
Siena’s goal is to transform Monte dei Paschi from prey to aggregator, creating a new potential banking hub worth almost 70 billion euros. However, the project must overcome both the approval of the internal assembly and the hesitations of the reference shareholders of the two groups targeted: Crédit Agricole (29.3% in Banco Bpm) and the Generali group (which controls 51% of Banca Generali).
How much is Intesa Sanpaolo’s offer worth now
Ca’ de Sass’ objective is precisely to neutralize this move and secure the operation, making it financially unassailable. In the event of total participation by Monte’s members, the new proposal will reach a total value of 31.4 billion euros.
This is approximately 800 million euros more than the initial 30.6 billion, but what makes the difference in the new plan is above all the revision of the “cash” component:
- 3.8 billion euros will be paid directly in cash;
- 27.6 billion euros will be paid in newly issued Intesa Sanpaolo shares.
An injection of liquidity designed to overcome market resistance and accelerate the birth of an even more solid credit giant in the European panorama.
Intesa’s either/or at Monte Paschi di Siena
In addition to the economic relaunch, the extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors came with a real ultimatum addressed to Montepaschi’s top management and shareholders.
The offer will immediately become ineffective if the MPS assembly were to approve even just one of the two parallel operations currently under discussion on Banco Bpm or Banca Generali.
Intesa’s strategic line is clear: the operation only makes sense for Siena’s current structure. If MPS decides to undertake further aggregations, the 31.4 billion check will be withdrawn immediately.
