their parents were to merge, discussions regarding the expected
integration between Fortis Lease and BNP Paribas Lease Group (BPLG)
have been frozen pending a general assembly of Fortis shareholders
on February 11.
Belgian courts suspended the sale in December, both parties had
started working “very hard” to combine the two businesses.
“BPLG operates using a very different model to ours,” said the
former Fortis Lease executive. “While Fortis Lease focuses on
providing a high level of service with large facilities to major
partners, BPLG is much more focused on independent businesses and
vendors.”
“The general consensus is that Fortis needs to make something
happen,” the source added. “Although I am not sure a merger between
the two lessors will work.”
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However, until the eagerly awaited Fortis general assembly later
this month, no progress can be made to integrate the two
lessors.
With a 27 percent market share in Belgium, acquiring Fortis
Lease is an appealing move for French lessor BPLG. With 670
employees, it is also a much smaller company than BPLG, which
employs 2,410 people worldwide. However, the strongest selling
point for Fortis perhaps is its total business volume which totals
just over €11 billion in 2007 against BPLG’s €11.2 billion.
The Belgian courts ordered a suspension of the sale following
pressure from Fortis shareholders, who were unhappy that the bank
did not seek their approval for the €14.5 billion sale to BNP
Paribas. In September, when faced with a liquidity crisis, Fortis –
one of the first European banks to require a bail-out – initially
received capital injections from Belgium and Luxembourg.
However, the Dutch government decided that it would nationalise
Fortis in the Netherlands, rather than participate in the
recapitalisation. This led the Belgian government to seek a sale of
the banking group and its subsidiaries to BNP Paribas.
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By GlobalDataFollowing the court-ordered suspension, a panel of five experts
appointed by the courts convened to appraise the sale. In January,
the panel announced that they believed the decision to sell Fortis
to BNP Paribas was “the most reasonable and most appropriate
option”, in the circumstances.
However, until Fortis’s shareholders vote on carving up the
bank, it is unlikely lessors will see a BPLG-Fortis Lease behemoth
on the European stage.
