The high-profile asset management merger between Italy’s largest insurer, Assicurazioni Generali SpA, and French bank BPCE SA’s Natixis aims to create Europe’s second-largest investment firm, managing €1.9 trillion in assets. Announced in January 2025, the deal has intensified challenges in Italy’s banking sector, already grappling with complex consolidation efforts. Resistance from Generali shareholder Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and some Italian government members, concerned about national interests, has created hurdles, despite support from Mediobanca, Generali’s leading investor. The deal, expected to be formalized this summer and completed by early 2026, faces scrutiny from Italian authorities.
This merger adds to Italy’s turbulent banking landscape, where political interference and shareholder disputes have stalled multiple deals. For instance, Mediobanca’s €6.3 billion bid for Banca Generali, Generali’s private banking arm, aims to double its wealth management revenue but has been delayed to September 25, 2025, due to opposition from shareholders like the Del Vecchio and Benetton families, alongside Caltagirone. Mediobanca’s offer involves swapping its 13% stake in Generali, a move CEO Alberto Nagel defends as strategically reducing reliance on Generali while enhancing wealth management.
Meanwhile, UniCredit’s hostile takeover attempt of Banco BPM, disrupted by government conditions, and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s unsolicited bid for Mediobanca further complicate the sector’s dynamics. Overlapping stakes—Mediobanca’s 13% in Generali, UniCredit’s 6.8%, and influential family holdings—intensify shareholder conflicts. Italy’s financial sector, managing over €600 billion in assets, including €30 billion in government bonds, remains a battleground for control, with regulatory and political pressures likely to persist into 2026.
