SocGen to announce new CFO, top exec Ripoll to quit -sources

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By Lionel Laurent and Matthias Blamont

PARIS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Societe Generale will name a new chief financial officer on Wednesday, seeking stability in the role after Bertrand Badre quit a year into the job, sources close to the matter told Reuters.

Internal candidates at France's No.2 listed bank are the frontrunners to replace Badre, who is leaving in March to join the World Bank, the sources said. Among those in the frame are Deputy CFO Philippe Heim and the head of specialist financial services Didier Hauguel.

Though analysts say the final choice is unlikely to have a major impact on market perceptions of the bank, which also reports fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, Chief Executive Frederic Oudea is under pressure to give clues on its long-term strategy.

The bank is at the end a year-long drive to reduce debt and beef up its balance sheet, while rivals such as UBS and Barclays are launching major overhauls.

Two people close to the bank also said that Jacques Ripoll, head of its asset-gathering division GIMS, would step down. Ripoll was offered the CFO job early in the process but turned it down, they said.

A SocGen spokeswoman declined to comment.

The average forecast in a Reuters poll of eight analysts is for the bank to swing to a fourth-quarter net loss of 237 million euros ($317 million), compared with a quarterly profit of 100 million euros in 2011.

This would put SocGen's total annual profit at 1 billion euros - a far cry from the 6 billion euro target set by CEO Oudea in 2010. Though the bank shelved this target in 2011, it has yet to say how it will fight the euro zone's sluggish economic recovery and tougher regulation.

SocGen shares are up 13 percent so far this year, against an 8 percent gain for the STOXX Europe 600 bank index. ($1 = 0.7474 euros)

A very un-French love letter to hedge funds, courtesy of France's finance minister

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By Lionel Laurent

PARIS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Hedge funds play a vital role in the French economy, finance minister Pierre Moscovici said, in comments aimed at defending a government plan to ringfence banks' proprietary trading and leave hedge-fund financing intact.

The proposed reforms, set to be debated in parliament this month, would force banks to make proprietary trading a separate self-funded entity and ban them from owning or operating hedge funds. Secured hedge-fund financing would be left intact.

"While some of these funds have strategies that should be criticised, today the vast majority are necessary and essential players when it comes to financing the economy, whether we like it or not," Moscovici wrote on his official website on Tuesday.

He cited small to medium-sized companies raising funds on the convertible bond market as an example of hedge funds' usefulness. "Hedge funds can represent 60 to 80 percent of demand on this market and so are essential for placing the securities in the best possible conditions for the companies."

Moscovici's stance was at odds with traditional anti-finance rhetoric from politicians on all sides. 

President Francois Hollande said during his 2012 campaign that "speculative funds ... (were) vectors of instability", while his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy called them "predators" in 2007.

A Paris-based hedge fund manager said the government was changing its rhetoric to drum up support for the reforms and also to build confidence at a time of economic stagnation and bad blood among voters over stubbornly high unemployment.

"For 10 months the government has spent so much time bashing entrepreneurs and the businessworld that it must be thinking it is time to mend relations," he said. "It is tactical."

Belgium seen reversing out of BNP Paribas this year

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By Lionel Laurent

PARIS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A market rally has raised expectations that Belgium will sell its six billion-euro ($8.2 billion) stake in French bank BNP Paribas, leading the way for other indebted governments to recoup bank bailout funds from the 2008 financial crisis.

Banking sources say no official talks have begun but some see a deal happening within the year. A successful sale could encourage other countries with significant bank stakes such as Britain and the Netherlands to follow suit.

"It's possible that a deal will happen this year," an advisory banker familiar with the matter said. "Belgium needs the funds and there is still a bit of upside left in BNP's shares."

Belgium's economy has only seen one quarter of growth in the last six, pressuring the government to find new ways to cut the public deficit, while BNP's share price has soared more than 30 percent over the past 12 months. The STOXX Europe 600 banks index is up 12 percent over the same period.

"Talks have not yet officially begun on this," another banker said, but added that further share gains would bring the process closer.

Politician Wouter Beke flagged a potential sale in December, telling Tijd newspaper that Belgium's aim was not to remain a shareholder of BNP and that the timing of the sale would depend on the stock market.

"It would make sense for Belgium, even if the timing is not clear," said Yohan Salleron, fund manager at Mandarine Gestion in Paris.

Belgium took its 10 percent stake at 68 euros per share in 2008 as part of BNP's rescue of collapsed Benelux bank Fortis, seen today as one of the French bank's canniest acquisitions.

BNP shares today trade almost one third below that level, meaning Belgium would actually lose money at market prices, but investors and analysts say that interest from foreign bidders willing to pay a premium or the use of a convertible bond could offset this. An extended rally could also bump up the price.