na, das wird der coba doch mal wieder schub geben...
BNP Paribas Rises on Report Societe Generale May Bid By Jacqueline Simmons
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, rose as much as 3.7 percent after a report in French daily Les Echos that smaller rival Societe Generale SA is studying a possible bid.
BNP Paribas rose 1.9 euros to 87.76 euros by 9:26 a.m. in Paris, valuing the bank at 81.8 billion euros ($109.6 billion). Societe Generale rose 0.1 percent to 139.69 euros, giving the Paris-based bank a market value of 64.5 billion euros.
Societe Generale Chief Executive Officer Daniel Bouton has appointed two U.S. investment banks, including Morgan Stanley, to consider an approach for BNP Paribas, the newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information. The move could be friendly or hostile. The plan hasn't been examined by Societe Generale's board and some members of management would prefer to merge with UniCredit SpA, Italy's largest bank, Les Echos said.
An all-French combination would ``no doubt require restructuring that will be intense and very costly,'' said Pierre-Yves Gauthier, a strategist at Oddo & Co. ``Investors are more interested in an international dimension with UniCredit than this Franco-French deal.''
Stephanie Carson-Parker, a spokeswoman for Societe Generale in Paris, declined to comment, as did Jonathan Mullen, a spokesman for BNP Paribas.
Not on Agenda
BNP Paribas Chief Executive Officer Baudouin Prot said on May 9 that a combination with Societe Generale ``would carry considerable execution risks'' and ``is not on my agenda.''
In 1999, BNP, known at the time as Banque Nationale de Paris, tried and failed to buy Societe Generale in a three-way merger with Paribas SA.
Speculation about a deal between Societe Generale and Milan- based UniCredit flared last month, when Alessandro Profumo, CEO of the Italian lender, told analysts a combination with the French bank ``could be a value-creating option.'' Bouton told French union leaders last month a tie-up with UniCredit would be ``intelligent.''
That speculation dimmed after UniCredit agreed to buy Capitalia SpA for 21.8 billion euros, creating the biggest bank by market value in the 13 nations using the euro.
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