SocGen must become European leader-board member

French bank Societe Generale needs to become a European leader in current consolidation, board member Luc Vandevelde said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.

"There is a new era and if you want to stay in the first league of banks in the world you need to be leader ... on at least a regional level, so that means Europe for us," he said on the sidelines of a conference.

"The banking business is in a new phase, clearly a phase of consolidation. ABN AMRO can be the trigger for this," he added. Vandevelde is the founder and managing director of private equity company Change Capital Partners and a previous chairman of retailer Marks & Spencer.

Societe Generale had talks on a deal with UniCredit before the Italian bank took over domestic player Capitalia to create one of Europe's biggest banks, valued at some €100 billion ($135.1 billion). The deal, however, has not dampened speculation that UniCredit could still buy SocGen at a later stage.

Britain's second biggest bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, with Santander and FORTIS, last week launched a 71 billion euro takeover of ABN AMRO, topping an agreed offer by Barclays and shaking up the European banking sector.

Source: Reuters
Date: 07.06.2007 [ID: 35]