Intesa Sanpaolo announced a €30.6 billion takeover bid for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) on Monday, stoking a battle to transform Italian banking a day after rival Banco BPM proposed a tie-up to MPS’s board.Intesa, Italy’s biggest bank, said the offer valued each MPS share at €10.09 — a 12.5 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price. Intesa is offering 16 newly issued shares for every 10 MPS shares and €1 cash per MPS share, the lender said on Monday. It was first reported on Sunday that Intesa’s board had approved the bid ahead of Monday’s announcement. The potential tie-up would create the Eurozone’s second-largest lender by market value.To ease potential antitrust concerns, Intesa has struck an agreement with insurer Unipol Assicurazioni, which is the largest shareholder in BPER Banca, to take over the MPS brand, about 635 branches and most of the central functions required to operate the business as an independent bank.Intesa would retain Mediobanca and its 13 per cent stake in insurer Generali, along with 625 MPS branches and other operations and assets.The businesses remaining within Intesa would account for about 80 per cent of the combined MPS-Mediobanca group’s projected 2025 net income, Intesa said. By 2029 the group’s net income would exceed €16bn, compared with €11.5 billion in its standalone business plan.David McRedmond: ‘O’Connell Street needs high density housing’ Listen | 50:36Intesa’s offer sets up a direct contest for MPS — the world’s oldest bank — with Banco BPM, with the outcome set to transform Italian banking.BPM, which has a market value of about €20 billion, said that a merger with MPS would “create a new national champion” and could give the bank more strategic options, including over MPS’s potential sale of its stake in Generali. It did not disclose the financial terms of its proposal.MPS has been the subject of intense takeover speculation since the Italian government completed its exit from the lender in 2024, returning it to private ownership seven years after its bailout.In a surprise move that upended expectations, MPS chief executive Luigi Lovaglio launched a bid for larger rival Mediobanca in early 2025, creating the banking group that now sits at the centre of consolidation plans in Italy.However, Lovaglio’s position appeared increasingly precarious earlier this year after he lost the backing of the board amid disagreements over strategy and the future direction of the bank, which led to his ousting.He engineered a dramatic comeback in April, securing a fresh mandate with the support of key shareholders at the annual meeting.His new term got off to a turbulent start as rumours swirled that larger rivals, including Intesa and UniCredit, were weighing potential approaches for MPS. It was reported in April that Lovaglio was mulling a potential sale of the group’s 13 per cent stake in Generali. - Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026