Crdit Agricole today launched a friendly 19.53bn ($20bn) cash-and-shares bid for Crdit Lyonnais. The offer is two-thirds in cash and one third in Agricole shares. Credit Agricole already controls 17.79 per cent of Lyonnais’s shares and 18.62 per cent of its voting rights.
AGF, the French insurance subsidiary of Germany’s Allianz, as well as Commerzbank of Germany, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria of Spain and IntesaBCI of Italy (in which Agricole has a stake), have agreed to back the offer. Between them they have 21 per cent of Lyonnais, taking Agricole’s promised stake to 39 per cent.
Axa, the French insurance giant which is close to rival suitor BNP Paribas, which bought a 10.9 per cent stake from the French government, has not declared its backing for the bid. Axa has 5.3 per cent of Lyonnais, and BNP Paribas 16.4 per cent. However, BNP Paribas has said it would oppose an acceptable bid by Credit Agricole, but may also counter bid, especially if the remaining shareholders become convinced the Credit Agricole-Credit Lyonnais tie-up is a job preservation exercise .
But Michel Pbereau, the BNP Paribas chief executive, may focus instead on a target he failed to acquire three years ago: Socit Gnrale. SocGen shares have risen already.