Word: banking
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Speculation is rife in France that the board of directors at scandal-rocked Société Générale decided to retain embattled CEO Daniel Bouton only to allow him to do the one thing he's spent a decade avoiding: preparing the bank for acquisition by a hostile rival...
...this noble sense of solidarity with the besieged? Indeed, how was it a country where movers of international finance are generally regarded with suspicion and disdain that a call went up to save the seat of a bank honcho? Particularly one whose supposedly ultra-sophisticated in-house security system evidently failed to detect the largest trading abuse in history...
...target. The likely prospect that its post-merger work force would be slashed is a chilling one in a France groggy with nearly 8% unemployment. During trading Tuesday, SocGen's stock price jumped nearly 11% amid heavy trading on rumors rival BNP is planning a hostile bid on the bank. That prospect appeared even more feasible on Wednesday, as BNP announced 2007 profits of $11 billion - smaller, to be sure, than 2006, but far better than European competitors reporting billions of losses linked to subprime exposure. Against that troubling background, many SocGen employees fondly recalled Bouton's deft defensive moves...
...Sympathetic press reports have also noted that Bouton's actions in the face of the crisis provided additional reason for keeping him on. Despite the enormous blow Kerviel's activities dealt the bank's finances and image, Bouton was able to quickly enlist international heavyweights like JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to back an $8 billion capital increase?and has already convinced two big French businesses, Groupama and Caisse des Dépots, to subscribe...
...black, my superiors closed their eyes to the methods and volumes involved."That suggests that even more destabilizing revelations for Société Générale may be in the offing. And that could unlock the lips of shareholders who have filed suit against the bank, but have thus far shied away from calling for Bouton's ouster until the crisis is over. Indeed, it is, perhaps perversely, the gravity of SocGen's situation that makes some prefer to cling to Bouton for now. CGT union official Marchet says he opposes Bouton's ouster because "it would...