Intesa Sanpaolo aims to become 'the Italian UBS' with €31B Monte dei Paschi bid

Intesa Sanpaolo SpA believes its €30.6 billion bid for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA can help it become Italy's version of Swiss wealth management giant UBS Group AG, CEO Carlo Messina said.

Intesa is targeting €2 trillion of customer financial assets by 2029 if the deal succeeds. The bank currently manages assets of €1.46 billion.

UBS's balance sheet grew by almost half when it acquired collapsed rival Credit Suisse Group AG in 2023. It is one of the world's largest wealth managers, with more than $7 trillion of assets under management at the end of 2025, S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows.

"We aim to be the Italian UBS," Messina said during the bank's presentation of the deal.

The deal's strategic objective is to strengthen Intesa's European leadership in wealth management and protection and advisory, the bank said in a statement announcing the deal. Intesa's wealth management and protection businesses generated 46%, or €12.54 billion, of the bank's revenue in 2025.

A successful bid would create a combined entity with annual revenue of around €33 billion and profit of €11.3 billion.

Intesa has signed an agreement with Italian insurance company Unipol Assicurazioni SpA, worth between €3 billion and €3.5 billion, to offload a chunk of Monte dei Paschi's (BMPS) retail banking business as part of the deal. The move aims to avoid potential antitrust issues due to Intesa's status as Italy's largest lender.

"Unipol will leverage Monte dei Paschi and its brand to create the second [-biggest] banking group in Italy," said Messina. Unipol is the largest shareholder in BPER Banca SpA, which is also said to be considering a move for BMPS, Reuters reported.

The takeover bid by Italy's largest lender for the world's oldest bank is the latest twist in a rush of banking mergers and acquisitions in the country that began in 2024. The bid follows Banco BPM SpA's public proposal to BMPS on June 7 for a €50 billion tie-up between the banks.

Intesa is offering 16 newly issued ordinary shares for every 10 MPS shares tendered, along with €1 cash for every MPS share tendered. The offer represents a 12.5% premium to MPS's June 5 closing price.

There is no possibility to increase the offer if a rival bid were to surpass it, Messina said. "We are already paying a significant premium for a bank that is under a significant transformation," he added.

'Love letter'

Banco BPM's proposal to merge with BMPS was little more than a "love letter," Messina said.

"There is a strange approach [by BPM] to say to [BMPS], 'I love you, please answer my request,' said Messina. "But I don't think that this is what you can call an offer — it is a proposal to discuss something in the future."

"Ours is an offer — we have a clear offer based on the formal procedure that you have to do when making an offer," he added.

Messina rubbished reports that Intesa's offer was due to BPM's merger proposal.

"This is not a response," Messina said. "We worked on this transaction for a long time because to reach an agreement with [Unipol] to make a disposal, it is not a job that you do in three hours."

Golden Power

The Italian government should assess any bid by BPM for BMPS under its "Golden Power" legislation due to French banking giant Crédit Agricole SA's 22.9% stake in BPM, given that UniCredit SpA's 2025 bid for BPM was blocked under the regime, Messina said.

Italian authorities have since agreed to restrict their use of the Golden Power, which was originally created to safeguard national interests across various strategic sectors in relation to foreign direct investment, after complaints about its use from the European Commission.

Intesa's acquisition of the Mediobanca Banca di Credito Finanziario SpA business should prevent further departures of its bankers from the company, Messina said. A significant number of Mediobanca employees were reported to have left the investment bank after its takeover by BMPS.

"They were used to playing in the Champions League," Messina said, referring to Europe's elite soccer club competition. "For these people to enter the Champions League again is a motivation factor."

BMPS's shares were up 12.4% as of 1.30 p.m. Milan time. Intesa's shares were down almost 2.7%. Unipol's shares were up 1.15%. BPM's shares were up 1.25%.