Monte dei Paschi shareholders vote on Banca Generali exchange offer

Intesa Sanpaolo's takeover offer for Monte dei Paschi would lapse if shareholders back either of the two bids.

Monte dei Paschi shareholders are meeting in Siena to consider two public offers, one for Banca Generali and one for Banco BPM. The meeting is chaired by Cesare Bisoni, with chief executive Luigi Lovaglio present, according to Il Sole 24 ORE. The Italian daily also reported that 65.86 per cent of Monte dei Paschi share capital was represented at the meeting.

The bank launched both offers on 21 August 2026 as two simultaneous voluntary share-based offers. Reuters, as cited by Archyde, valued the Banca Generali offer at €8.7bn and the Banco BPM offer at €25.3bn, a combined €34bn. Assicurazioni Generali is a related party of Monte dei Paschi and is among the addressees of the Banca Generali offer. The bank's board applied related-party safeguards voluntarily, according to the bank's press release.

The bids are Monte dei Paschi's answer to a takeover offer from Intesa Sanpaolo. It also raised the cash component of its offer by 25 euro cents a share, on condition that both bids are rejected. On 8 October, the holding company of Caltagirone, which owns 10.26% of Monte dei Paschi, said it would vote against the Banco BPM and Banca Generali bids and the Mediobanca merger, according to Reuters.

A rejection would remove the exchange offer as the route for Monte dei Paschi to acquire Banca Generali. Any further approach would need a new proposal, so the vote decides whether that combination stays a live option. A rejection would also show that shareholders are prepared to block a deal that would have moved the bank's ownership in a new direction.