Raphael Stevens

Offering 23 of its shares for 10 of its acquisition target, Monte dei Paschi values Mediobanca’s stock at roughly €15.992 each, a 5% premium to the close price of Jan. 23.
Monte dei Paschi, the world’s oldest bank, required a state rescue in 2017 after years of crippling losses, but has turned the tides of its fortunes under the leadership of UniCredit veteran Luigi Lovaglio.
The Friday offer adds to a picture of heating M&A appetite in Italy’s banking and financial services sector.

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Italy’s bailed-out Monte dei Paschi di Siena on Friday launched a 13.3 billion euro ($13.95 billion) all-share takeover offer for larger domestic peer Mediobanca.
Shares of Monte dei Paschi (MPS) were down 7.97% at 11:39 a.m. London time, with Mediobanca up 6.28%.

Offering 23 of its shares for 10 of its acquisition target, Monte dei Paschi values Mediobanca’s stock at roughly €15.992 each, a 5% premium to the close price of Jan. 23. The proposal will have to be approved at a shareholder meeting on April 17.
The equity of Monte dei Paschi was worth 8.7 billion euros as of the Jan. 23 close, while Mediobanca’s market capitalization stood at at 12.3 billion euros, according to FactSet data.
CNBC has reached out to Mediobanca for comment.
Under the offer terms, Monte dei Paschi estimates pre-tax benefits of 700 million euros a year from the transaction, which would help it to leverage tax credits from previous sustained losses and add 500 million per year for the next six years.
The lender, which intends to delist Mediobanca, hopes to close the transaction by the end of September, Monte dei Paschi CEO Luigi Lovaglio said in a briefing.

“Mediobanca is the best fit at the best time for a powerful business combination,” he added. “We will leverage on the excellence of the two brains, preserving their unique positioning. The new Italian champion will be resilient with [a] diversified business mix.”
In a Friday note, KBW Analysts Hugo Cruz and Ben Maher noted the proposal has “limited” synergy potential and chances of success.

Monte dei Paschi, the world’s oldest bank, required a state rescue in 2017 after years of crippling losses, but has turned the tides of its fortunes under the leadership of UniCredit veteran Lovaglio. The Italian government retains a 11.73% stake in the lender, after decreasing its position in a bid to reprivatize the lender.
Delfin, the holding company of late billionaire Leonardo del Vecchio, has increased its position to 9.78% since January, with business tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone now holding 5.03%. Delfin and Caltagirone are the largest shareholders of Mediobanca, with 19.8% and 7.8%, respectively.
“The transaction could contribute to complete the dynamics of the Italian financial system, in the context of strong consolidation,” Italian banking union Fabi said after the offer announcement, according to a CNBC translation. “MPS, historically at the center of complex events, is now moving in an ambitious direction. The bid confirms, among other things, that MPS has completely recovered.”
Amid a helpful high-interest environment, Monte dei Paschi was last year able to offer its first dividend in 13 years, posting a CET1 ratio — a measure of a bank’s strength and resilience — of 18.3% in the third quarter.
The Friday offer adds to a picture of heating M&A appetite in Italy’s banking and financial services sector, where the country’s second-largest bank UniCredit previously offered to buy out Banco BPM, which in turn seeks to acquire fund manager Anima Holding. Monte dei Paschi was itself a potential takeover target for UniCredit until talks recently collapsed in 2021.
 — CNBC’s Silvia Amaro and Ganesh Rao contributed to this report. More

A major exchange-traded fund provider is trying to take the volatility out of bitcoin investing.
Calamos Investments launched the Calamos Bitcoin Structured Alt Protection ETF (CBOJ) on Wednesday. The firm brands it as “the world’s first downside protected bitcoin ETF.” It is built with risk-adverse investors in mind.

“You can get in all day long. Get that 100% protection. And then at the end of the day, we’re going to strike the cap,” the firm’s ETF head Matt Kaufman told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.” Bitcoin is a volatile asset … we don’t want the price of bitcoin to move on you overnight.”
The firm launched the new bitcoin ETF on Wednesday. It coincides with a winning month for bitcoin. The cryptocurrency is up 10% as of late Thursday afternoon.
According to a Calamos press release, the fund provides access to bitcoin in a risk-controlled environment.
“Many investors have been hesitant to invest in bitcoin due to its epic volatility,” Kaufman said in the release. “Calamos seeks to meet advisor, institutional and investor demands for solutions that capture bitcoin’s growth potential while mitigating the historically high volatility and drawdowns of this fast-growing and high performing asset.”
Calamos has more crypto funds on deck. It is set to launch Calamos Bitcoin 90 Series Structured Alt Protection ETF (CBXJ) and Calamos Bitcoin 80 Series Structured Alt Protection ETF (CBTJ) on Feb. 4, according to the Calamos website.

‘You’re not going to see meme coin ETFs from Calamos’

Despite the firm’s appetite to offer cryptocurrency funds, Kaufman told “ETF Edge” there is one group Calamos will not consider.
“You’re not going to see meme coin ETFs from Calamos. But the ability to access bitcoin in a way that meets your risk tolerance, that’s what we’re about,” Kaufman said.

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Talk about money and budgeting early is the advice of wealthy CEOs and founders.
Allow your kids to invest in something low-risk at the start and ask them to explain their rationale, leaders told CNBC.
Talk to children in their own terms, according to Singapore-based CEO Gregory Van. Ask: “Do you want to spend $100 today on a toy, or have it turn into $200 in 10 years when you are 16?” he said.

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Entrepreneur Eric Malka had to completely shift his mindset when he sold his company and became an investor. Since then he’s learned many lessons he’s now passing to his kids.
When The Art of Shaving — which Malka and his wife Myriam Zaoui founded in 1996 — was bought by Procter & Gamble for a reported $60 million in 2009, Malka realized he needed to educate himself.  

“When an entrepreneur like me is lucky enough to have a liquidity event, then we’re faced … with managing assets without proper training,” he told CNBC by video call. Investors must focus on being patient and on long-term returns, whereas company founders often look at a short-term plan, “almost an opposite” mindset, Malka said.
He took courses on wealth management, read books on investing and now has a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, private equity and real estate, with about 10% allocated to riskier investments. In 2014 he founded private equity fund Strategic Brand Investments.

The lessons learned when you lose are more valuable than the ones when you succeed.

Eric Malka
Co-founder and CEO, Strategic Brand Investments

When it came to educating his children — sons aged 14 and 16 — about money, Malka’s attitude has been to help them learn from the ground up.
“One of the challenges I faced with my teenagers early on, is their belief that it’s very easy to make money by investing through social media and through what they hear from friends,” he said. His older son thought he could generate a 20% monthly return, which Malka described as “very concerning.” So, Malka let him invest a small portion of his savings, hoping it would provide an opportunity to learn — and his son lost 40% of that investment after trading currency futures.
“I hate to set up my child for failure, but sometimes, you know, the lessons learned when you lose are more valuable than the ones when you succeed,” Malka said.

It’s a point that resonates with Gregory Van, CEO of Singapore-based wealth platform Endowus. He and his wife have children aged eight, six and three. He said he’ll be teaching them that it’s important to make mistakes when the stakes seem large to them, though may be small in reality. “The emotional muscle, and humility required to be a good investor is something that people need to develop on their own,” he said.

Teaching kids how to invest

For Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, president and co-founder of real estate company Flag Luxury Group, educating kids early about money is key.
She and her husband allocated a “low risk” sum of money to each of their three children in middle school for them to pick companies to invest in. “Our children chose Apple, Amazon, Google and Alibaba. All but one had terrific runs. As long as they kept their money in the market and continued to be thoughtful in their approach, we added every year to their nest egg,” she told CNBC by email. 
Olarte de Kanavos said her experience in real estate investing taught her the value of patience. “It influenced my business approach by emphasizing long-term strategy over quick gains,” she said. The mother of three described her own investments in the stock market as “very conservative, in order to best manage the huge risks that we take in our real estate business.”

Give them an allowance no later than the first grade.

Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos
President and co-founder, Flag Luxury Group

She suggested having children explain why they want to buy certain stocks, because it “can demystify investing and make it an exciting and integral part of their education,” she said.
Van said he talks to his young kids about the tradeoffs of investing in their own terms. “I ask them: ‘If we invest this $100 and it goes down by $70 next year, how will you feel?’ ‘Do you want to spend $100 today on a toy, or have it turn into $200 in 10 years when you are 16?’,” Van told CNBC via email. “Surprisingly, they are very rational and always go for delayed gratification,” he said.
Van and his wife have investment portfolios for each of their kids, mostly made up of gifts they’ve received during holidays such as Chinese New Year. “Given their long investment horizon, they are in very diversified, multi-manager, low-cost equities portfolios,” Van said, and he shows his children their portfolios’ performance — positive or negative — whenever they ask.

Budgeting and saving for children

Age-appropriate advice is very important, Malka said. His focus right now is teaching his children about budgeting, providing them with a fixed allowance per month.
“In the beginning, you know, they would spend in 10 days what they were supposed to spend in 30 days … now I’ve been doing this for eight months or nine months, now they’re really managing it properly, and I think that’s a skill they don’t realize they’re being taught,” he said. He recommended the book “Raising Financially Fit Kids,” by Joline Godfrey, which provides advice by age-group.
“Give them an allowance no later than the first grade,” is Olarte de Kanavos’ suggestion. “The purpose of an allowance is to allow them to learn to make their own decisions about money and to manage the repercussions that come with their choices,” she told CNBC. “As they get older, teach them about saving, the concept of interest, and the difference between good and bad debt,” she said.
For Roshni Mahtani Cheung, CEO and founder of media company The Parentinc, long-term thinking is important. She and her husband opened a fixed-deposit account for their eight-year old daughter for the money she receives at Chinese New Year, and at Diwali she receives a gold coin. “My goal is for her to grow up financially savvy, confident, and ready to make her own decisions,” Mahtani Cheung told CNBC by email.

Talking to kids about their inheritance

A concern for the wealthy members of advisory network Tiger 21 is how and when to talk to their children about their inheritance. “They are most concerned about their kids leading independent productive lives and don’t want knowledge about the wealth they will inherit to distract them or take them off course,” said Tiger 21’s founder and chairman Michael Sonnenfeldt in an email to CNBC.
Around 70% of the network’s members want to wait until their kids are close to 30 years-old and have established careers to detail what they might inherit — and when, Sonnenfeldt said. “However, about 30% of members want to begin working with their kids in their late teens or early 20s to teach them to become responsible stewards for the wealth they will inherit,” he said. Both approaches are valid, he added.
“I suggest that parents encourage open, values-driven conversations about money and investing,” Sonnenfeldt said. More

President Donald Trump on Thursday accused the CEOs of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase of refusing to serve conservatives.
Both banks deny the accusations, which Trump and others in his orbit have repeated in recent months.
The accusations may have roots in allegations from state attorneys general last year.

U.S. president Donald Trump appears on a giant screen as he addresses global elites via video conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Thursday accused the CEOs of the two largest American banks of refusing to serve conservatives, reviving a 2024 campaign talking point that the two companies deny.
Speaking via video to an assembly held at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump lashed out at Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as part of a Q-and-A session.

“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump said.
“You and Jamie and everybody, I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong,” Trump said.
Moynihan, who was among a few executives selected to ask the president questions during the Q-and-A, did not immediately respond to the accusation.
Both banks deny refusing service to conservatives.
“We serve more than 70 million clients, we welcome conservatives and have no political litmus test,” a Bank of America official said in an email.

“We have never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop,” a JPMorgan spokeswoman said in a statement. “We follow the law and guidance from our regulators and have long said there are problems with the current framework Washington must address.”
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, caused in part by shoddy lending standards at major banks, U.S. regulators increased pressure on lenders to purge clients in industries considered higher risk for money laundering or fraud. That meant that payday lenders, pawn shops, firearms dealers and those involved in pornography had their accounts revoked, often with little notice or explanation as to why.
As recently as October, Trump singled out Bank of America, repeating claims that it discriminates against conservatives.
The accusations may have roots in allegations from state attorneys general last year. In April, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter to Moynihan, accusing the bank of canceling the accounts of “multiple religious groups with mainstream views in the last three years.”
In a May letter in response to Kobach, Bank of America said accounts are de-banked for reasons including a change of stated purpose of the account, the expected level or type of activity on the account or failure to verify certain documentation required by law.
One account highlighted by Kobach was de-banked because it engaged in debt collection services, which was inconsistent with the Bank of America division that was servicing the account, according to the bank’s response.
“We would like to provide clarity around a very straightforward matter: Religious beliefs or political view-based beliefs are never a factor in any decisions related to our client’s accounts,” the bank said in that letter. “Bank of America provides banking services to non-profit organizations affiliated with faith-based communities throughout the United States. We have banking and investing relationships with approximately 120,000 faith-based clients in the United States.”
Influential people in Trump’s orbit have continued to claim that banks are discriminating based on religion or politics.
In November, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm that bears his name, told podcaster Joe Rogan that dozens of startup founders had been de-banked in recent years. Andreessen has said he advises Trump on technology matters.
Bank of America shares were up more than 1% on Thursday, with JPMorgan shares higher as well.
The banking industry is seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the election of Trump, in large part because of expectations he would kill Biden-era regulatory efforts to force banks to hold tens of billions of dollars in additional capital against losses, make annual stress tests less opaque and drop efforts to cap credit card and overdraft limitations.

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