Société Générale: State Street would consider a takeover of SGSS

(Boursier.com) — State Street would be very interested in Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS), the subsidiary dedicated to the securities business of the Banque de la Défense. According to people familiar with the matter cited by ‘Bloomberg’, the Boston-based firm discussed the terms of a possible takeover of SGSS. The French bank would hope to obtain more than a billion euros for the activity in question. The division, which retains 4.7 trillion euros in assets, has also attracted interest from other suitors, and there is no certainty that State Street will reach an agreement, according to the sources.

Under the leadership of Slawomir Krupa, SocGen is striving to sell its less profitable activities in order to strengthen its balance sheet and regain market confidence. The company announced last week the sale of its professional equipment financing activities to Groupe BPCE and rumors around SGSS have been recurring for several months.