MPS, board meeting in progress: the Lovaglio plan, including a special dividend for shareholders, is on the agenda
Under consideration is a package of transactions, notably the deals involving Banco BPM and Banca Generali – as reported yesterday by *Il Sole 24 Ore* – and the special dividend for MPS shareholders
The MPS board meeting, which began this morning at 9.30 am, is still in progress. On the agenda is the strategy drawn up by Chief Executive Luigi Lovaglio to counter Intesa Sanpaolo’s public takeover bid. At the heart of the plan is reportedly a package of transactions, notably the public offers for Banco BPM and Banca Generali – as reported by *Il Sole 24 Ore* – and an extra dividend for MPS shareholders.
The first scenario therefore envisages a public exchange offer for the entire share capital of Banco Bpm. However, this transaction already presents an initial sticking point: the stance of Crédit Agricole, Banco Bpm’s main shareholder, which, at least so far, has continued to appear lukewarm towards the prospect of a merger.
More complex, from a corporate and strategic perspective, is the Banca Generali case. According to the same sources, the plan under consideration would begin with an exchange of the 13.32 per cent stake held by MPS in Generali for the 50.17 per cent stake in Banca Generali controlled by the ‘Leone di Trieste’. Subsequently, they explain, MPS would launch a bid for the remaining shares in Banca Generali, with the aim of delisting the company.
This approach bears some similarities to the plan drawn up in 2025 by the then chief executive of Mediobanca, Alberto Nagel. Indeed, the 13.32 per cent stake in Generali represents one of the most sensitive aspects of the MPS deal. “There are passivity rules, authorisations and delicate shareholding balances,” other financial sources explain to the press agency. A series of constraints, they say, which would make it anything but straightforward to use the stake as financial and strategic leverage to take over Banca Generali.
