AXA renews ties with Italy’s Monte Paschi

MILAN: AXA wants to renew its bancassurance agreement with Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and intends to remain a shareholder of the lender, the Chief Executive of the French insurer said on Thursday. “We are shareholders and I see no reason to change the present situation,” Thomas Buberl (pictured) said in an interview with Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Buberl said AXA would spend around 1 billion euros (854 million pounds) a year on acquisitions but said it was not looking at large-size M&A deals. He reiterated AXA was not interested in Italian peer Generali. But he said the focus would be on organic growth.— Reuters