"Ours is a concrete market offer, there is no logic of power. It is an offer addressed to the shareholders of Ps, if they receive a better one we will continue until we can create value for our shareholders, otherwise others will do the operation". This is how the CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo Carlo Messina to journalists who asked him for comments regarding the €30,6 billion takeover bid launched a month ago by Ca' de Sass on Monte dei Paschi, but above all on the rumors circulating. One above all: today The Sun 24 Hours reported a plan, currently frozen, to create a Generali-Mps axis to surpass Intesa Sanpaolo's offerAccording to the newspaper, there were meetings between the number one of the Lion, Philippe Donnet, and the CEO of Siena, Luigi Lovaglio, to try to find an alternative plan to Intesa.
Asked about the issue, MPS did not release any comments, while Generali pointed out that "the defense of independence and integrity of the company remain a priority for the defense of the interests of the country system and of Generali itself".
Messina: "Only we guarantee independent national assets."
“I feel like a market man and I think I have ffinally a market operation has taken place in this country", Messina said on the sidelines of an event in Turin on the new "Future Choices" program, referring to the offer on Intesa and the ongoing consolidation in the banking sector.
“But – he continued – I am also Italian so I think that an important thing is look at who can really guarantee independence and the national security of this country's strategic assets, and it can only be us and certainly not the French or the Germans.”
Messina: "It's normal for MPS and Generali to talk."
Addressing the rumors, Intesa's CEO commented: "I think everyone is meeting with everyone, so we've certainly created opportunities for many people to meet during this period. Monte Paschi di Siena is now the largest shareholder in Generali, so It seems normal to me that they talk to each other, it seems to me to be something of no novelty with respect to the context".
Messina finally outlined the timeline for the offer launched on Intesa, explaining that it is "the one we have indicated: our meeting will be on September 10th, and from then on we expect to receive various authorizations or comments from the various authorities, to reasonably conclude by the end of the year."
