Monte dei Paschi bid for Mediobanca to run from July 14 after green lights

MILAN (Reuters) -State-backed Italian bank Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena said its bid for rival Mediobanca would start on July 14 after the country's markets watchdog approved the offer document for investors.

Monte dei Paschi also said it had received unconditional approval from Italy's antitrust authority for the deal.

Monte dei Paschi emerged from years of restructuring, following a 2017 state bailout, and shocked Italy's financial world in January with a bid for the bigger rival.

The deal would bring together Monte dei Paschi's commercial franchise with Mediobanca's branchless business focus on wealth management, corporate and investment banking and consumer finance.

Mediobanca, one of the most revered names in Italian finance, has been fighting the takeover offer which it deems hostile.

Monte dei Paschi last week secured European Central Bank approval for its bid, including under a scenario where it would own less than 50% of the rival's capital.

That boosts the chances of success of its offer given that its top two shareholders, Italy's Del Vecchio and Caltagirone billionaire families, are also the top investors in Mediobanca with a combined 27% stake which they are expected to tender.

Monte dei Paschi said the offer would run until Sept. 8, meaning Mediobanca shareholders have eight weeks to tender their shares.

In an attempt to thwart the Monte dei Paschi takeover, Mediobanca has proposed acquiring Banca Generali and focusing on wealth management.

However, Mediobanca last month had to postpone to Sept. 25 a shareholder vote to approve the Banca Generali bid because it risked failing to secure sufficient backing after some key shareholders decided to abstain, and others who oppose the project increased their holdings ahead of the vote.

(Reporting by Valentina Za and Gianluca Semeraro; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Aurora Ellis)