Monte dei Paschi Fights Takeover With €34bn Counter-Bids

The board of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest bank, defended itself against a €30.6 billion takeover bid from Intesa Sanpaolo by launching its own share-exchange offers for Banco BPM and Banca Generali, totalling roughly €34 billion, according to an analysis published by Project Syndicate. The decision, reached after seven hours of deliberations on August 20, also included distributing another €4 billion to the bank's own shareholders.

Monte dei Paschi, founded in 1472 and rescued by Italian taxpayers in 2017, has thus turned from target to aggressor in a single stroke. The episode underscores how the Italian banking sector remains a contested arena, with the government still holding a significant stake in the Siena-based lender after its state bailout nearly a decade ago.