French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said yesterday that Societe Generale (SocGen), hit by US$7 billion in losses from rogue trades, was under no pressure to merge with another bank as its shares plunged.
"Societe Generale is under no constraint to merge with another financial company," Lagarde told France 2 TV.
The trader blamed for the scandal, 31-year-old Jerome Kerviel, remained in custody after turning himself in on Saturday. He is helping an investigation into how he kept his supervisors in the dark while losses piled up, prosecutors said.
Kerviel's lawyer, Christian Charriere-Bournazel, said his client was expected to face preliminary charges yesterday.
But he told Europe-1 radio that he was "convinced"that Kerviel would not be kept in prison while the judicial probe continues.
He reiterated what the bank has said -- that Kerviel did not appear to have profited personally.
Charriere-Bournazel claimed that Kerviel had done well for the bank last year, making a profit of 1.5 billion euros (US$2.21 billion) with his trades by the end of the year.
"The expression `fraudster' is totally misplaced," the lawyer said, adding that Kerviel "didn't embezzle a single centime."
He said Kerviel had been doing a trader's job by taking on risk, and accused the bank of setting him up for a "lynching."
Societe Generale revised downward slightly the amount Kerviel allegedly lost -- from 4.9 billion euros to "just over" 4.82 billion euros.
Chief executive Daniel Bouton said the bank has not been approached by any suitor.
Bouton went to London yesterday to drum up support for the bank's 5.5 billion euro emergency share issue, which has already been underwritten by two US investment banks.
SocGen's shares tumbled yesterday after Citigroup said the French bank's franchise was "severely impaired." The shares fell by 9 percent in early trading.
Citigroup also speculated that British-based HSBC, which already has a big retail and commercial banking presence in France, might be interested in buying SocGen.
Lagarde's statement was the latest sign that France's establishment is rallying round to SocGen's defense in an attempt to stave off talk that a foreign rival might launch a takeover bid for the company as its market value sinks.
A top adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Sunday the government would probably intervene if raiders made a move.
"I don't think the state would remain with its arms crossed if someone, whoever the predator, tried to take advantage of the situation," Henri Guaino told French TV.
Meanwhile, about 100 Societe Generale shareholders have filed a suit for insider trading and manipulating share prices after the French bank revealed multibillion euro losses, a lawyer said yesterday.
The suit targets a member of the bank's supervisory board who sold shares worth 85.7 million euros (US$126 million) on Jan. 9 and "any other person who directly or indirectly profited from insider information," said lawyer Frederik-Karel Canoy.
The financial market regulator, the AMF, said the sale had been carried out by Robert Day, a member of the board since 2002, at a price of 95.27 euros per share.
It added that two foundations "linked" to Day, the Robert A. Day Foundation and the Kelly Day Foundation, had also sold shares on Jan. 10.
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA