Ducking The Question

Philippe Bordenave, the chief financial officer of French bank BNP Paribas, ducked questions about the possibility that BNP may bid for beleaguered Societe Generale yesterday.

Quote:

"We have had no time. When they published their announcement our first priority was to avoid the risk of being tarred by the same brush so we decided to immediately issue a statement and to publish very rapidly our results.

Since then, it was last Thursday, my team and I have worked around the clock to get the figures that we are publishing today. During that very short timeframe I have not had much time to elaborate much further on SocGen."

There are legal procedures under way which have attracted a huge amount of media attention so this is another reason why I don't want to comment on SocGen."

Whatever he says publicly, you can rest assured that privately BNP are doing their best to put together a buyout plan.

Aside from the fact that SocGen is now fatally holed below the water line, Gallic pride would never allow such a "national asset" to be sold to an Anglo Saxon bank.

If BNP do not get their offer in soon, and complete on it, SocGen will fall prey to the Anglo Saxons.

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SocGen Emulates Northern Wreck

In the fallout from last week's alleged fraud at Societe Generale, shares in the bank continued to underperform the market falling 3.7% today.

Prompting French Economy Minister, Christine Lagarde, to say that there was no need for Societe Generale to merge with another bank.

However, SocGen's problems have spurred longstanding market speculation that it could be taken over by BNP Paribas. There is also speculation that SocGen might be vulnerable to a break-up bid.

Northern Wreck, SocGen...who's next?

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