Mediobanca's Banca Generali deal suits Monte dei Paschi bid, MPS investor says

By Valentina Za

MILAN (Reuters) -A bid by Monte dei Paschi di Siena's acquisition target Mediobanca for Banca Generali is a plus for the takeover project, the head of a leading Monte dei Paschi investor said on Wednesday.

To fend off Monte dei Paschi's (MPS) takeover proposal, Mediobanca on Monday announced a 6.3 billion euro bid for wealth manager Banca Generali, a network of financial advisers owned by insurer Generali.

Mediobanca CEO Alberto Nagel has said approval from his bank's shareholders for the Banca Generali deal could imply they would then reject the MPS proposal.

Mediobanca shareholders vote on June 16 on the Banca Generali deal. The MPS offer will run in July.

MPS does not see the two transactions as mutually exclusive, with people in the Tuscan bank's camp saying Banca Generali is an asset the combined entity would have been interested in.

Giuseppe Castagna, the CEO of MPS investor Banco BPM, on Wednesday confirmed that Banca Generali would make sense for MPS to own if it acquired Mediobanca.

Banco BPM became an MPS investor in November, buying a 5% stake from Italy's government. The stake is set to reach 9% because Banco BPM has successfully completed a buyout offer for Anima Holding, which owns another 4%.

Speaking on the sidelines of BPM's annual meeting, Castagna said: "From an industrial standpoint I would not be unhappy as a shareholder if MPS came to own Banca Generali" by acquiring Mediobanca.

"To own a wealth manager of the size of Banca Generali can only add industrial value," he said.

Mediobanca's bid for Banca Generali is the latest in a raft of hostile takeover attempts rocking Italian finance.

Banco BPM is trying to fight a buyout bid from UniCredit which it says would benefit UniCredit shareholders at the expense of Banco BPM's investors.

($1 = 0.8800 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za.Editing by Mark Potter)