BNP Paribas Group and Rabobank Group have reached agreement over the transfer of the 98.5% stake held by Rabobank in Bank Gospodarki Żywnościowej (Bank BGŻ) to BNP Paribas for PLN4.2bn (€1bn), bringing the total amount spent by the French bank in equity derivatives portfolio acquisitions to over €295.5bn.
The completion of the transaction is subject to the execution of the final documentation and to the necessary regulatory approvals.
The news of the acquisition follows the alleged sale of RBS’s IP&ED portfolio to the French bank for £175bn ($282bn), with £30bn belonging to its public distribution network, £65bn the listed options and futures division and £80bn in the over-the-counter products section.
BNP Paribas also acquired Crédit Agricole’s equity derivatives book last month for €12.5bn in a further move to expand its retail structured products business, following the acquisition of Macquarie’s equity derivatives business in July 2012 when the French bank took on the market risk of the Australian bank for a €1bn notional portfolio consisting of 1,900 products transferred to the French bank across seven exchanges.
Marginal players in Poland
From a structured products perspective, Rabobank (BGZ) has been a marginal player in the Polish structured products market, with a market share of 3% in 2013 across 11 products worth PLN237m (€58m).
BNP Paribas, meanwhile, is also a marginal provider in Poland, with only 31 products marketed since 2005 and 12 live structures, and is not in the top 10 ranking of the most prolific issuers, which is led by Spain’s Santander. Both Rabo’s Bank BGZ and BNP Paribas have no products currently on offer.
The latest product from BNP Paribas in Poland, DuoProfit is a two-year range-accrual life insurance linked to the EUR/PLN and USD/PLN, which closed for subscription last week. Bank BGZ sold its last tranche before the acquisition announcement.
Lokata Inwestycyjna XXXII, a one-and-a-half years structured deposit linked to the GBP/PLN exchange rate which closed its subscription period at the beginning of last month.
BNP Paribas said in a statement that the transaction is expected to have a minor impact (around -15 basis points) on BNP Paribas Group’s Basel III Common Equity Tier 1 ratio and to immediately have an accretive effect on its net income per share (2013 pro forma).
It is not clear if BNP Paribas is planning any redundancies at Bank BGZ, following market reports suggesting that the French bank plans to let go between 500 and 600 staff at RBS.
Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, chief executive at BNP Paribas Group, stated, however, that he welcomed “all Bank BGŻ staff and clients into our Group”.
“They will help to enhance the excellent work already being done by our teams at BNP Paribas Polska, who have been instrumental in the success of our subsidiary to date,” he said.
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