Intesa Sanpaolo complains to market watchdog over MPS defensive moves in M&A battle

MILAN, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Intesa Sanpaolo on Wednesday filed a complaint to Italy's market watchdog Consob over transactions that smaller rival Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) has announced following Intesa's offer for it, a source close to the matter said.

Last week MPS announced two simultaneous, all-share bids, totaling about €34 billion ($39.7 billion), on rival Banco BPM and wealth manager Banca Generali, as it seeks to fend off a 30.6 billion cash-and-share hostile takeover approach launched by Intesa in June.

The compliant aims to clarify whether MPS has complied with regulations the source said, citing in particular the so-called "passivity rule," which restricts the scope of a target company to take defensive measures against a takeover bid.

(Reporting by Valentina Za, writing by Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Gavin Jones)