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 MILAN, Italy (AP) - Shares in Banca Intesa SPA and Sanpaolo IMI SPA fell Monday following the weekend announcement that Italy's No. 2 and No. 3 banks will merge, a move expected to usher in an era of consolidation of Italy's banking sector.
Shares of Intesa declined 1.6 percent to 4.985 euros ($6.37), while Sanpaolo fell 1.43 percent to 15.87 euros ($20.29). Both were still above the swap ratio of 3.11 Intesa shares for each Sanpaolo share announced Saturday as guidelines for the deal, valued at 29.6 billion euros ($37.78 billion), .
The merger will be presented to shareholders for approval in December and is expected to be completed by early 2007. The boards of directors of the two banks approved the guidelines in separate meetings Saturday.
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