M&A

4 November, 2009

BNP says SocGen bid talk is "unfounded and unrealistic"

PARIS, Nov 4 (Reuters) - French bank BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) said on Wednesday that a report in the La Tribune newspaper that BNP was considering a bid for smaller rival SocGen was unfounded and unrealistic.

"This rumour is unfounded from A to Z!," a BNP Paribas spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The spokesman added that BNP was focusing full-time on integrating its acquisition of Fortis assets and said BNP had not had any internal meetings or set up any internal projects dedicated to a possible SocGen deal.

(Reporting by Julien Ponthus, editing by Marcel Michelson)

Source: http://www.reuters.com