PARIS, March 11 (Reuters) - BNP Paribas will 'probably not' keep the Fortis brand as it stands if it succeeds in acquiring the Belgian banking group, chairman Michel Pebereau said on Wednesday on BFM radio.
'It is a recent name and indeed poses a certain number of problems to shareholders which it may have disappointed. We will see with our Belgian friends how BNP Paribas' activities in Belgium are going to develop,' he said.
Pebereau later clarified in an emailed statement that the group would create a new name -- BNP Paribas Fortis -- as it wanted neither to keep the Fortis name as it was nor to scrap it entirely.
Fortis shares, which had previously been regarded as a 'safe' investment, are worth only around 1.20 euros ($1.52) today, against almost 15 euros a year ago.
The Belgian government announced at the weekend that it had reached a new agreement with BNP Paribas, under which the French bank would take 75 percent of Fortis Bank in Belgium.
Fortis shareholders are due to vote on this agreement on April 8 and 9 at a shareholders' meeting, after having rejected the previous agreement on Feb. 11.
(Reporting by Julien Ponthus, Writing by Helen Massy-Beresford; Editing by Will Waterman) ($1=.7881 Euro) Keywords: BNP/FORTIS (helen.beresford@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 56 83; Reuters Messaging: helen.beresford.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
'It is a recent name and indeed poses a certain number of problems to shareholders which it may have disappointed. We will see with our Belgian friends how BNP Paribas' activities in Belgium are going to develop,' he said.
Pebereau later clarified in an emailed statement that the group would create a new name -- BNP Paribas Fortis -- as it wanted neither to keep the Fortis name as it was nor to scrap it entirely.
Fortis shares, which had previously been regarded as a 'safe' investment, are worth only around 1.20 euros ($1.52) today, against almost 15 euros a year ago.
The Belgian government announced at the weekend that it had reached a new agreement with BNP Paribas, under which the French bank would take 75 percent of Fortis Bank in Belgium.
Fortis shareholders are due to vote on this agreement on April 8 and 9 at a shareholders' meeting, after having rejected the previous agreement on Feb. 11.
(Reporting by Julien Ponthus, Writing by Helen Massy-Beresford; Editing by Will Waterman) ($1=.7881 Euro) Keywords: BNP/FORTIS (helen.beresford@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 56 83; Reuters Messaging: helen.beresford.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.