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Societe Generale, the listed French financial institution, has its eyes set on European merger partners beyond just Italy’s UniCredit, a source at SocGen’s shareholder employees Association said. This source confirmed that at a recent meeting with representatives of SocGen’s labour unions, CEO Daniel Bouton had said “everything was possible” in the way of a merger but that “nothing was sure.”
Speaking to this news service after SocGen’s AGM on Tuesday in Paris, this source, representing employees holding 10% of the capital of the bank, said that SocGen was looking at a number of possible partners. Among them were the Italian bank Intesa SanPaolo, this source said, in addition to SocGen’s well established interest in Unicredit. SocGen is also keen on UK banks, namely Lloyds TSB and Halifax, this source said.
Spanish banks such as Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argenteria (BBVA) or Banco Santander Central Hispano, could also be a match, this source said, adding that other possibilities include Switzerland’s UBS and Germany’s Deutsche Bank. However, few analysts believe that UBS would seriously consider doing a deal with SocGen as a whole, although it may be interested in its asset management or investment banking units.
This source said that employee shareholders were favourable to a “stand alone” strategy and pointed out that competitor BNP Paribas has had a rough time incorporating Paribas. This source pointed out that employees believe in the expression, ’if it is not broken don’t fix it’, emphasizing SocGen’s high profitability. This source also lamented the fact that since SocGen’s privatization twenty years ago, employee shareholders had not been given a Board seat and were thus worried of not having a voice in case of a merger.
A high-ranking SocGen executive confirmed a report recently published by this news service which had indicated that the Italian government was keen to see a merger between UniCredit and Capitalia. Capitalia confirmed tie-up talks with Unicredito on Tuesday but that no agreement has been reached on an eventual merger. The SocGen executive pointed out, however, that UK banks would also be excellent partners for SocGen.
At Tuesday’s AGM, Daniel Bouton tried to downplay speculation of an imminent merger with UniCredit, which had been fueled by a report from labour union CGT, indicating he had said a link-up with the Italian bank would be “intelligent.” Bouton confirmed he had identified eight European banks as possible partners but said no talks were under way.
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