ROME: Italian bank Mediobanca, itself battling to fend off a hostile takeover by a rival, announced on Monday a 6.3 billion euro ($7.2 billion) bid to buy wealth management firm Banca Generali.
Mediobanca is planning to use its 13.1 percent stake in Italy’s largest insurance company, Generali, to pay for the acquisition of the group subsidiary Banca Generali, the statement said.
“The combination between the two companies will produce a European market leader,” Mediobanca said.
Mediobanca is itself trying to fend off a hostile takeover by state-backed Banca Monte Paschi di Siena (MPS) as the Italian banking industry sees a wave of hostile bids.
Mediobanca’s offer stipulates that if it does not manage to acquire a minimum of 50 percent plus one of the total number of Banca Generali shares, then it would abandon its takeover bid.
It said the takeover would result in its wealth management revenues doubling to two billion euros and such profits increasing fourfold to 800 million euros.
In a statement, it said the acquisition would “transform the relationship between Mediobanca and AG from a financial to a strong industrial partnership”.
In January, Mediobanca rejected a 13.3-billion-euro bid from MPS, which had been backed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government.
The Mediobanca board branded the offer “devoid of industrial and financial rationale” and thus “destructive” for the bank.
MPS, the world’s oldest bank, had wanted to create a banking group to rival the two biggest in the country, Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit.
MPS was bailed out by the Italian government in 2017, when it was on the verge of bankruptcy, and Rome became its main shareholder.
Banca Generali’s shares were up 7.5 percent in morning trading while MPS gained 3.1 percent, Mediobanca rose 0.6 percent and Generali dropped almost two percent.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has come under fierce criticism after a video emerged where he stood in front of a Pakistani flag and called on Pakistanis to “take power in councils, parliament, political parties and countries” so that they can “dictate what’s taught in schools.”
In the going-viral video, Sarwar announced, “a change is coming,” urging South Asians to become more politically and educationally powerful. But what most viewers immediately noticed was the glaring omission of any reference to Britain, Scotland, or the wider British public.
Netizens quickly charged Sarwar with advocating sectarianism, rather than integration. “Multiculturalism has failed,” said many, warning that Sarwar’s message portends a turn away from assimilation towards segregation.
One X (formerly Twitter) user posted, “The old Pakistan is going to be destroyed. But a new Pakistan is going to rise in the United Kingdom,” in response to Sarwar’s appeal.
Another said, “Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar speaks of putting more Pakistanis into power. Notice he doesn’t mention Scots, because they don’t identify as Scots. They’re not concealing the Great Replacement anymore.”
Others cautioned that “the days when South Asian communities get to lead countries is upon us,” reminding all that South Asia is comprised of Afghanistan and Pakistan as well.
The furor ran deeper when it turned to Sarwar’s family connections.
Days ago, videos purportedly of his father, Mohammad Sarwar, a former Labour MP who is now a Pakistani politician, were going around on social media. In one video, Mohammad Sarwar reportedly calls for worldwide blasphemy laws defending Islam.
“Crazy stuff given the politics Anas promotes,” one commenter responded, citing a clip where Mohammad Sarwar threatened that “a time will come that there will be a law in place all over the world that there can be no disrespect to our prophet.”
Another commenter noted that Mohammad Sarwar, a Labour MP from 1997 to 2010 before becoming a senator and governor in Pakistan, came “awfully close to implying Muslims would respond violently to disrespect of Muhammad.” Other posts asserted that Mohammad Sarwar was spotted in George Square, Glasgow, delivering incendiary speeches about burning Qurans and demanding bans on criticism of Islam.
As the backlash increases, there has been no public response by Anas Sarwar.

Former Prime Minister of Nepal Baburam Bhattarai. File.
| Photo Credit: S. Subramanium

Nepal’s former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai will launch a new political front to address growing disenchantment about the current government led by Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. In an exclusive interview with The Hindu on Monday (April 28, 2025), Mr Bhattarai ruled out weakening of the democratic process in Nepal and said “there is no chance of the return of monarchy in Nepal” and that the unhappiness on the ground is against Mr Oli’s government and not against the post-monarchy democracy.

“Nepal is caught in the cycle of three leaders – Sher Bahadur Deuba, K.P. Sharma Oli and Prachanda. The youth are disenchanted as economic development has been too slow. People are looking for a change and that is why we are launching this front and have tentatively named it as Progressive Democratic Front or Progressive Socialist Front,” said Mr Bhattarai saying that new constituents are coming into the front as Nepal plans for the next election in 2027. Mr Bhattarai currently leads the Naya Shakti Party which is a democratic socialist political party in Nepal.

Mr Bhattarai said the pro-monarchy protest that recently took place in Kathmandu did not acquire sufficient political mass as the people are not unhappy with the democratic process, adding “People are unhappy with the current government of K.P. Sharma Oli and Sher Bahadur Deuba. They are not upset with the democratic system. Therefore there is no chance of the return of monarchy.”

Mr Bhattarai is visiting India as Nepal marks 20^th anniversary of Jana Andolan II. Two decades ago in February 2005, King Gyanendra suspended the existing  constitution and deposed the government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba which led to a public upsurge paving the way for the overthrow of monarchy in 2006 and the transfer of power to a democratically elected government in 2008 under Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’.

Nepal subsequently adopted a new constitution in September 2015 pledging to create a more inclusive democratic system that would do away with regional disparities and systemic bias. However, the new constitution has also been accused of sustaining old social and political structures and the governments over the previous decade could not carry out the amendments that were demanded by the tribes and people from the Terai belt.

He also surmised that despite growing unhappiness against the Oli government, there is no likelihood of an immediate overthrow of the current government as “no party in the parliament has a majority” arguing that “change may happen even now but that will not make any qualitative change as all the three major leaders [Oli and Deuba in the government and Prachanda in the opposition] have been discredited and that is why we are forming an alternative front.”

Mr Bhattarai however remarked on Monday that much of Nepal’s current political problem is rooted in the fact that the Maoists could not implement their full charter of change and said, “Nepal’s revolution was incomplete and the current situation and the protests are part of that pain that we have to undergo before more  changes takes place in the country.”

“Oli and Prachanda are the same. Prachanda who was the Maoist leader has been co-opted in the old system. That is why people like us are trying to build a new front,” said Mr Bhattarai.