The French banking commission looked increasingly likely yesterday to have to decide the winner in a six-month bank takeover battle after press reports claimed BNP had failed to win control of Societe Generale.
The results of BNP's double bid for Societe Generale and Paribas will be announced on Tuesday, more than six months after BNP launched its hostile takeover, upsetting previous plans for an agreed merger between its two rivals.
The stock market regulator CMF, which is counting shareholder support for each bid, said yesterday it had not even received notifications for half the shares so far. The deadline is midnight, with the figures to be announced on Tuesday.
But that did not prevent the Figaro and Le Monde newspapers announcing yesterday that, according to their sources, BNP had won an outright majority of Paribas but only around 35 per cent or so of the capital in Societe Gen erale.
The banks refused to comment on the reports and Societe Generale sent an internal note to staff warning them that it was up to the CMF to announce the results.
But the reports sent shares in Societ e Generale sharply higher on renewed speculation that BNP might be forced to increase its bid, and they ended the day up 4.8 per cent at €189.00.
Paribas shares also rose, to end the day up 3.7 per cent at €106.00, but Banque Nationale de Paris were slightly lower, down 0.1 per cent at €75.40.
The share prices of SocGen and Paribas are now more than 20 per cent above the level at the time of the BNP bid, while BNP shares are some 2.6 per cent lower.
