Intesa Sanpaolo sells off assets to find stability. - Italy's second-biggest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, has started selling off €11 billion worth of assets and will unveil an industrial plan for 2013 in the spring of 2011 covering new developments in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. After selling off La Spezia Savings Bank (Carispe) and selling Crédit Agricole around a hundred branches, Intesa Sanpaolo has announced that its asset management subsidiary Fideuram will be returning to the stock exchange in the next few quarters, but it is the sale of business to State Street that has netted the greatest net profit, some €648 million, and has enabled Intesa Sanpaolo to increase its six-monthly profits by 6%. Without the State Street sale, it would have registered a 34% fall in profits. The results of the four biggest Italian banks in the first half of 2010: 1) UniCredit (€669 million; -28.6%); 2) Montepaschi (€261 million; -21.4%); 3) Banca Popolare di Milano (€70 million; -43.4%) and 4) Intesa Sanpaolo (€1,69 million; +6.4%). (I.L./transl.fl)