BNP Paribas’s chief executive on Sunday expressed confidence that the French bank’s revised bid for Fortis Bank would be approved by the Belgian group’s investors, in spite of the renewed calls by a leading shareholder activist to vote against the takeover.

Baudouin Prot told the Financial Times he expected Fortis shareholders to back the deal at an extraordinary meeting on April 8-9, which would turn the French group into Europe’s largest retail bank by deposits.