Finance
Factbox-How many banking deals have been struck in Italy in the past year?
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 24, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 24, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Italy's banking sector sees significant consolidation with major deals and acquisitions, including Monte dei Paschi's and BPER's key transactions.
By Andrea Mandala and Valentina Za
MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's financial sector is being swept by a round of consolidation.
Following is a summary of the deals that have gone though and the offers that have fallen through.
1. MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA - MEDIOBANCA
The Tuscan bank on Monday ended its 16 billion-euro ($19 billion) share-and-cash offer for its bigger Milanese rival, having secured 86.3% of Mediobanca.
Monte dei Paschi, which Italy has successfully reprivatised in the past two years following a 2017 bailout, had stunned Italian finance in January with its swoop.
2. BPER-BANCA POPOLARE DI SONDRIO
Italy's fourth-largest bank in July completed a 5.4 billion euro cash-and-share offer for the smaller Sondrio-based - a defensive move which it said was dictated by the accelerating consolidation. Insurer Unipol, the main shareholder in both banks, played a pivotal role.
3. UNICREDIT-BANCO BPM
Italy's second-biggest bank in July dropped its 15 billion euro all-share offer for Banco BPM, blaming conditions the government had set to clear the deal.
UniCredit had bid for BPM in November, offering a 0.5% premium which it refused to top up with cash as Monte dei Paschi and BPER did instead to see their bids through.
4. BANCO BPM-ANIMA HOLDING
Shortly before UniCredit's takeover move, Banco BPM had bid to buy fund manager Anima Holding, a 1.8 billion-euro acquisition it completed in April.
5. MEDIOBANCA-BANCA GENERALI
To thwart MPS' takeover bid, Mediobanca in April announced a 6.3 billion euro all-share offer for wealth manager Banca Generali, but it failed to secure approval from shareholders when it put the deal to a vote in August.
6. BANCA GENERALI-INTERMONTE
Banca Generali in January had completed its 98.2 million euro purchase of broker Intermonte to boost its investment banking skills and complement its wealth management offer with corporate finance advisory services.
7. BANCA IFIS-ILLIMITY
Venice-based IFIS on August completed a cash-and-share offer to buy Illimity, the digital bank founded by former industry minister and veteran banker Corrado Passera which in September was delisted from the Milan bourse.
8. CF+-BANCA SISTEMA
Elliott-backed speciality lender Banca CF+ in June unveiled a 145 million-euro discounted offer for rival Banca Sistema after striking an accord with the target's main shareholder to secure his 25% stake.($1 = 0.8521 euros)
(Reporting by Andrea Mandala and Valentina Za, editing by Ed Osmond)
Monte dei Paschi's offer for Mediobanca was valued at 16 billion euros ($19 billion).
BPER completed a 5.4 billion euro cash-and-share offer for Banca Popolare di Sondrio in July.
UniCredit dropped its 15 billion euro all-share offer for Banco BPM due to conditions set by the government to clear the deal.
Mediobanca's 6.3 billion euro all-share offer for Banca Generali failed to secure approval from shareholders.
Banca Generali acquired broker Intermonte for 98.2 million euros in January.
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