Intesa CEO says domestic market share makes it impossible to buy rivals

MILAN (Reuters) - The domestic market share of Intesa Sanpaolo is such that buying a rival in the country is "mission impossible", CEO Carlo Messina said on Tuesday, also ruling out major acquisitions abroad due to the lack of suitable targets.

Messina said Intesa would have been in an ideal position to buy another Italian bank but had its hands tied due to competition reasons.

Consolidation in general is unlikely because for other banks with large excess capital, such as rival UniCredit, share buybacks are hard to beat as a capital deployment option, while for mid-sized banks haggling over who would at the helm of a merged bank prevented action, he said.

(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Keith Weir)