Credit Agricole sees MPS bid for Banco BPM as unappealing, paper says

ROME, Sept 15 (Reuters) - French bank Credit Agricole, the biggest investor in Italian lender Banco BPM, sees an offer by rival Banca Monte dei Paschi (MPS) for BPM as unattractive and doubts it will deliver value for shareholders, daily La Stampa reported on Tuesday.

The bid for Banco BPM is part of a two-pronged defence strategy, which also includes an offer for wealth manager Banca Generali, that MPS CEO Luigi Lovaglio presented in August to fend off a takeover plan by Intesa Sanpaolo.      

Credit Agricole owns 29.3% of Banco BPM, and opposition from one of the targets' top investors would be a major hurdle for Lovaglio, who also needs MPS's own shareholders to first approve the plan in a vote on October 29.

Credit Agricole has conveyed its negative view on the proposal in a meeting with Lovaglio a few days ago, La Stampa said. It said that the French bank looked instead at a merger between its Italian unit and Banco BPM.

Credit Agricole has previously said that such a tie-up is its preferred option and had rejected the prospect of a "merger of equals" Banco BPM and MPS had been negotiating.

When those talks collapsed, MPS unveiled its takeover bid for BPM on terms which MPS CEO Lovaglio has said are similar to those the two banks had previously been discussing.

MPS and Credit Agricole declined to comment. 

Any BPM-Credit Agricole Italia deal is a long way away, La Stampa said, because terms would have to be agreed first that please other BPM shareholders and reassurances given to Italy's government.

Credit Agricole, for which Italy is the biggest foreign market, has worked to keep good relations with Rome.

The support of the other BPM investors is necessary because Credit Agricole would not be allowed to take part in the shareholder vote on the transaction.

($1 = 0.8669 euros)

(Writing by Francesca Piscioneri; Editing by Valentina Za and Tomasz Janowski)