French Banking Giants to Merge Brokerage Operations into Single Unit

Chris Owen

9 August 2007

Société Générale and Calyon have signed the final agreement to merge their respective Fimat and Calyon Financial brokerage subsidiaries into one entity, to be known as Newedge, The operational launch of the new entity is scheduled for early 2008, subject to supervisory approval. Patrice Blanc, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Fimat Group, will be appointed chief executive officer of Newedge and Richard Ferina, Calyon Financial's chairman and chief executive officer, will be deputy. Newedge will be controlled 50/50 by Soc Gen and Calyon and will have bank status. It will be headquartered in Paris, and is expected to have a combined staff of around 3,000 located in the world's main financial centres. Newedge will rank as a world leader in execution, in particular electronic execution, as well as in clearing derivative products traded in over 70 organised markets in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, according to a statement. It will also combine to provide a prime brokerage offering as an alternative to investment banks.