Thank you to everyone who made it possible to create BNP Paribas, the leading French banking group and a leader in Europe

The BNP Paribas Group is the result of the stock market battle between the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and the Société Générale, from March to August 1999. Everything began on 1 February 1999 when the Société Générale announced its merger with the international merchant bank, Paribas. BNP, which had posted in early 1999 the highest earnings ever attained by an institution in the French Banking Association (AFB), launched a spectacular counter attack on 9 March 1999. It filed a double share exchange offer (SEO) for Société Générale and Paribas. This was a veritable shock wave in the national banking environment. The ambition of the bank on Boulevard des Italiens is to create a European size bank group with a solid national base.

In June, the Société Générale, which had filed a suit against BNP, raised its offer for Paribas by 8%. At the end of June, BNP raised its offer by 12%. At the definitive end of the offers, on 6 August 1999, BNP obtained 65% of the capital of Paribas and 37.5% of Société Générale. In the end, the Comité des Etablissements de Crédit et des Entreprises d’Investissement (CECEI) forbid BNP from acquiring its Société Générale shares, which gave rise to the BNP Paribas Group.
On 25 and 26 October, a convention devoted to the strategy of the new institution brought together the executives of the 2 institutions. The merger was launched. The new bank had 76,000 employees, of which 28,000 were outside France.
The constitution of a veritable European group began then under the guidance of Michel Pébereau and Baudouin Prot.

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