Bailed-out Monte dei Paschi launches bid to acquire Mediobanca

(Reuters) – State-backed Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) has launched a surprise 13.3 billion euro ($13.9 billion) all-share buyout offer for Mediobanca, it said on Friday.

Monte dei Paschi, which was for years the problem child of Italian banking until a 2017 bailout, said it was offering 23 of its own shares for every 10 Mediobanca shares tendered, equivalent to a 5% premium versus Thursday’s closing price.

($1 = 0.9568 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za in Milan and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru, editing by Gavin Jones)