FOR MONTHS Italian finance has been gripped(吸引住，笼罩) by the €16bn ($18bn) takeover(收购，接管) by Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the world’s oldest surviving lender, of Mediobanca, an investment bank which also owns a 13% stake in Generali, a giant insurer. Completed last September, it was the biggest European banking merger in years. It involved the abrupt(突然的，意外的) sacking(解雇，开除) of MPS’s boss by the board in April and his rapid reinstatement(复职，恢复职位) by shareholders.
数月来，意大利金融界一直为锡耶纳牧山银行（MPS）对Mediobanca的160亿欧元（180亿美元）收购案所笼罩。MPS是世界上现存最古老的银行，而Mediobanca是一家投资银行，还持有保险巨头Generali 13%的股份。该收购于去年9月完成，是多年来欧洲最大的银行合并案。过程中，MPS的老板在4月被董事会突然解雇，随后又被股东迅速复职。
If that was not enough drama, on June 7th Banco BPM, Italy’s fourth-largest lender, proposed a tie-up(合并，联合) with MPS that would create a heavyweight(重量级巨头) worth some €50bn. The next day Carlo Messina, boss of Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s biggest domestic lender, dismissed(驳回，不予考虑) BPM’s offer as a “love letter(情书，比喻不切实际的提议)” and launched a rival and, he claimed, less frivolous(轻率的，不严肃的) €31bn bid for MPS. The result would build a behemoth(庞然大物，巨头) with market value of €130bn or so.
如果这还不足以称为戏剧性，6月7日，意大利第四大银行Banco BPM提议与MPS合并，将创造一个价值约500亿欧元的巨头。第二天，意大利最大国内银行Intesa Sanpaolo的老板Carlo Messina将BPM的提议斥为“情书”，并发起了一项竞争性且他声称不那么轻率的310亿欧元收购MPS的报价。结果将打造一个市值约1300亿欧元的巨型银行。
Intesa is offering MPS’s owners 16 newly issued shares(新发行的股票) of its own for every ten in MPS, plus €1 per share on top of that(除此之外，另外). That represents a premium(溢价，额外费用) of 12.5% on MPS’s closing share price on June 5th. Intesa has called a shareholders’ meeting for September 10th to approve the necessary issuance of shares. If both banks’ shareholders go for it(同意，接受), the deal would create the euro zone’s second-biggest lender by market value, after Santander of Spain.
Intesa 向 MPS 的股东提出以每持有10股 MPS 股票换取16股新发行的 Intesa 股票，外加每股1欧元现金。这比 MPS 6月5日的收盘价溢价12.5%。Intesa 已召集9月10日的股东大会以批准必要的股票发行。如果两家银行的股东都同意，该交易将创建欧元区市值第二大银行，仅次于西班牙桑坦德银行。