Posted on: Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Largest French bank looks to expand in U.S.

Bloomberg News Service

PARIS — BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank by assets, said it is studying possible investment-banking acquisitions to expand in the United States.

The Paris-based bank is ready "to consider the acquisition of a medium-sized specialist structure," BNP Paribas spokesman Henri de Clisson said. The company already has 1,800 U.S. investment-bank employees, mostly in New York.

Following the 1999 acquisition of investment bank Paribas, BNP has been expanding its international retail-banking business. This year it bought the 55 percent it didn't already own of BancWest Corp., Hawai'i's largest bank holding company and parent of First Hawaiian Bank and California's No. 4 bank, Bank of the West, for $2.45 billion.

Retail banking remains the "main focus" of BNP's acquisition strategy, de Clisson said. The bank is taking a "selective approach" to possible investment-banking purchases. He declined to elaborate.

BNP last week reported a 7.2 percent drop in second-quarter net income to 1.16 billion euros ($1.04 billion). The fall was less than expected, as demand for mortgages and consumer loans limited the effect of an investment-banking slump. Investment-banking profit dropped 18 percent to 453 million euros.

BNP Paribas rival Societe Generale SA bought Cowen & Co., a privately held U.S. investment bank specializing in areas such as technology, health care, communications and media, in July 1998 for $540 million.