Intesa's board backs buying 3% Generali stake as part of MPS offer

MILAN, June 8 (Reuters) - Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo said on Monday its board had approved buying a 3.01% stake in insurer Generali as part of its unsolicited €30.6 billion ($35 billion) bid to buy smaller rival Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS). 

"The transaction is purely financial in nature, is temporary and is anyway aimed at ensuring that the offeror may continue, following the successful completion of the offer, to use the equity method accounting treatment currently applied to the stake held by Mediobanca in Generali," Intesa said in a statement.

• Intesa said its board approved the execution of a hedging derivatives contract with a "leading financial counterparty", with the stake in Generali as the underlying asset.

• MPS bought rival Mediobanca last year. The deal handed it a 13% stake in Generali, making it the biggest investor in the country's top insurer - a coveted asset in Italian finance.

• Intesa, whose business model is focused on wealth management and insurance, had attempted to buy Generali in 2017, but dropped the plan and grew its insurance business internally.

• Italy's second-biggest bank UniCredit last year built a large stake in Generali.

($1 = 0.8679 euros)

(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; Editing by Valentina Za)