Italy says won't sell MPS stake before M&A battle concluded

ROME, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti told regional politicians on Tuesday the Treasury will not sell its 4.8% stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) before an ongoing tussle for control of the Tuscan lender is concluded.

Giorgetti made the comments at a meeting in Rome with elected officials from Siena and the surrounding Tuscany region seeking answers about the future of Italy's third-largest bank.

Last week MPS announced two simultaneous bids, totalling about €34 billion ($39.7 billion), on rival Banco BPM and wealth manager Banca Generali in a defensive move against a hostile takeover approach launched in June by market leader Intesa Sanpaolo.

Under Intesa's plan, MPS would be broken-up.

"The minister told us the (Treasury) stake would be frozen until the (M&A) phase is over," Agnese Carletti, president of the Siena province, told Reuters after Tuesday's meeting.

Tuscany's regional president Eugenio Giani relayed the same comments by Giorgetti, and the minister's words were confirmed to Reuters by a Treasury source.

The Treasury was planning to sell its remaining shares in MPS via an accelerated bookbuilding procedure (ABB), but froze the process to avoid influencing the ongoing M&A battle, the source said, confirming a Reuters report early this month.

MPS will hold a shareholders' meeting on October 29 to approve its bids for Banco BPM and Banca Generali.

On that occasion the Treasury will assess its position, Giorgetti told the local politicians, Carletti said.

Intesa's bid for MPS is expected to be launched as early as the end of September.

($1 = 0.8568 euros)

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Silvia Ognibene in Florence; writing by Giulio Piovaccari; editing by Gavin Jones)