(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 8 giu - Shares of the Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Mediobanca, the investment bank BMPS acquired last year, were sharply higher in Milan trading after Italy's largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, announced a cash-and-share offer for BMPS.

That came on the heels of Banco BPM's competing proposal to BMPS to open negotiations aimed at a merger of equals.

At 0745 GMT, BMPS shares were up 11.55% at 9.98 euros while Mediobanca surged 10.31% to 23.85 euros. Shares of the insurer Generali, in which BMPS is also the largest shareholder with a 13.3% stake, were 1.34% higher at 39.33 euros. Intesa noted that its board had also approved the purchase of an equity stake of 3.0% in Generali.

To ward off potential antitrust opposition for an eventual takeover of BMPS, Intesa said it has already reached an agreement to sell around 635 bank branches and the vast majority of BMPS central structures/activities necessary to operate as a bank in an independent way to the insurer Unipol Assicurazioni, for a cash consideration equal to around 3.0-3.5 billion euros. Unipol is the largest single investor in BPER Banca.

BPER Banca shares were 4.25% higher at 12.16 euros while those of Unipol, which is launching a 2.5 billion euro capital increase to finance the deal, were 0.24% higher at 20.92 euros. Intesa Sanpaolo shares were down 4.28% at 5.43 euros, making it the top faller in the benchmark FTSE MIB, while Banco BPM shares slipped 0.76% to 13.11 euros. The FTSE MIB edged down.

0.01% to 49,886.85 points.

(RADIOCOR) 08-06-26 10:00:04 (0222) 5 NNNN