Societe Generale, the French bank, said that it is in talks to acquire the 50% stake of Credit Agricole over their jointly owned brokerage firm Newedge. This transaction has been confirmed by several sources familiar with the transaction with Reuters.
Credit Agricole and SocGen are still in the process of discussing and are still haggling on a price, according to one of the sources. It added that this was a complex business working under uncertain market conditions.
The business have a total enterprise value between Eur800 million and Eur1 billion or between US$1.07 billion and US$1.33 billion, according to several bankers and analysts following the case.
The spokespersons for Credit Agricole COB and Societe Generale both declined to provide any comment on the matter. Newedge, for its part, referred a request for comment to its parent shareholders.
According to one of the sources who chose to remain anonymous, "SocGen, which previously has wanted to sell its 50 percent stake in Newedge, is now looking at buying the whole business. After trying to sell it, it became obvious that they weren't going to get a good price, so now it's about doing the next best thing."
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