Monte dei Paschi to hold board meeting on M&A situation on Monday

Oct 11 (Reuters) - Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena will hold a board meeting late on Monday to take stock of the situation after suitor Intesa Sanpaolo pledged to hike its takeover bid and gained the support of some key MPS investors, three people close to the matter said on Sunday.

Intesa a week ago said it would increase by 25% the cash component of its €35 billion takeover bid if MPS shareholders rejected a defence plan CEO Luigi Lovaglio has proposed against the bid.

The board will discuss the latest developments, one of the sources said, adding it was not clear if any further defence moves could be put to board members.

To be able to advance his defence scheme, Lovaglio has called a shareholder vote on it on October 29, where he needs a two-third majority approval. But shareholders holding in aggregate some 30% of the bank's capital over the course of the past week said they would not back the project - making it impossible to reach the necessary approval threshold.

(Reporting by Nethra Sailesh in Bengaluru, Valentina Za in Milan;Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Francesca Landini)