SocGen stock soar on BNP bid talk
SocGen stock soar by 10.4% on talk of a bid from French rival BNP Paribas
Société Générale stock
soared by 10.4% after
BNP Paribas
said yesterday it was considering an approach for Société Générale, its French
banking rival – an initiative which would create a European banking powerhouse.
But any offer for SocGen will have to wait until the middle of next week
because the Bank of France requires eight working days’ notice before any bid is
made for a French bank, according to Financial Times.
SocGen, still reeling from the impact of a rogue trading scandal which has
opened the way for a possible bid, has decided to ‘increase its back office
controls substantially’, a director told the FT. ‘The back office
should be pushing the front office, as opposed to the other way around’.
This was confirmed by another person familiar with the board’s discussions,
who said control procedures had already been modified at SocGen, ‘but the plan
is to change the balance of power between front and back offices’.
Further reading:
Bank of France governor slams SocGen’s controls
Read
story in The Financial Times