(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 8 giu - The Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo has no interest in acquiring or managing the Italian insurer Generali, said Intesa CEO Carlo Messina during a presentation of Intesa's cash-and-share takeover offer for the lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS).

BMPS is also the largest shareholder in Generali. "Our intention is to maintain the 13.5% of Generali and the share of net profit tied to this stake, without involvement in the management of the company. We are not interesed in that," said Messina. "If you ask me if we want to make an acquisition of Generali, the answer is no," he added.

Messina said that Intesa's announcement of the purchase of a 3% stake in Generali was meant simply to prevent Generali from building its own defensive stake in Intesa.

"You can make a mistake, but not twice," said Messina. He was referring to Generali's decision in 2017 to acquire a 3% stake in Intesa to protect it from Intesa's possible interest in acquiring Generali. According to Italian financial market rules, Intesa at that time couldn't purchase more than 3% of Generali without seeing the voting rights on its stake above.

3% be frozen.

(RADIOCOR) 08-06-26 14:37:35 (0431) 5 NNNN