Word: boutons
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...face of it, the two events might seem unconnected. After months of government criticism and a slew of ugly headlines, Daniel Bouton announced last week that he plans to quit as chairman of Société Générale, one of France's biggest banks. A day earlier, a meeting of shareholders in banking giant Fortis turned nasty when investors riled by the sale of ts recently nationalized Belgian banking arm lobbed shoes and other items at chairman Jozef De Mey. De Mey stood his ground, and won an eventual vote on the sale. But the twin...
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...
...Following their meeting Wednesday, board members said they had rejected Bouton's resignation in order to preserve stability while the bank is still reeling from the $7.13 billion loss resulting from derivative trader Jérome Kerviel's illicit futures speculation. Many cited Bouton's storied record of fiercely defending Société Générale's independence in the past. But even before that day had ended, the general surprise that greeted Bouton's survival gave way to anticipation that he'd been kept aboard as the best-placed expert to chose the best among several...
...been a major traumatic episode at a bank or financial institution, the final page has ultimately been turned with the company being bought out," notes Jacques Mistral, head of economic research at the French Institute of Foreign Relations in Paris. Despite that record, Mistral says he doubts that Bouton is staying on specifically to prepare Société Générale's sale. "Everyone there is still fully focused on surviving this scandal - the here and now," Mistral argues. "When the time comes where it's inevitable Société Générale...
...Indeed, since taking Société Générale's CEO post in 1997, Bouton has fended off several takeover bids. The most notable effort came in 1999, when BNP sought to buy Société Générale in an attempted three-way merger with French bank Paribas. Bouton's defensive maneuvers to prevent that were strengthened by labor stoppages by bank employees, many of them shareholders, whose support of Bouton since the Kerviel debacle has been solid. Despite that collective determination, Mistral says Société Générale...