Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 27, 2026
2 min readLast updated: February 27, 2026
By Valentina Za
MILAN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena said on Friday it targeted an annual profit of 3.7 billion euros ($4.4 billion) in 2030 after completing its merger with peer Mediobanca in the course of this year.
Monte dei Paschi's (MPS) 16 billion-euro share-and-cash takeover of Mediobanca was the biggest M&A deal in Italy last year, combining a commercial bank with a branchless peer active in wealth management, consumer finance and investment banking.
The profit target, which excludes one-off items, compares with 2.4 billion euros in 2025, MPS said, as it presented a multi-year strategy for the joint group requested by the European Central Bank within six months of the deal.
Bailed out by the state in 2017, MPS was re-privatised in 2023-2024, and went on to acquire 86% of Mediobanca in a round of consolidation in Italian banking.
It will now buy the remaining 14% and take Mediobanca private to secure the full 700 million euros in savings expected from the tie-up.
Mediobanca said on Friday it expected to complete by March 10 preparatory work with advisers to be ready to assess the terms of the full merger, which will see MPS propose an exchange ratio to swap Mediobanca shares with MPS stock.
MPS said it would structure the new group's diverse business into five areas and reap 8% of profits from a 13% stake in top Italian insurer Generali held by Mediobanca.
Planning to pay out 100% of its profit in the coming years, MPS said it would distribute 16 billion euros in dividends by 2030, in a boon for shareholders that acquired the around 60% stake Italy has placed on the market.
After bringing in dozens of foreign investment funds with the re-privatisation process, Rome eventually created a core of Italian shareholders who now hold roughly a third of MPS's capital, with the state retaining almost 5%.
MPS said it had ample excess capital, meaning the high payout would still leave it with some 3 billion euros in cash in 2030 in excess of a targeted 13% minimum core capital threshold, which it could use for additional deals or to remunerate investors.
($1 = 0.8470 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Giulia Segreti, Thomas Derpinghaus and Susan Fenton)
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