Exclusive: Gecina to replace CEO with Generali exec

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PARIS | Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:31am EDT

(Reuters) - Property group Gecina (GFCP.PA) plans to replace its current CEO Bernard Michel with Generali's (GASI.MI) Philippe Depoux, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, in the latest sign of upheaval at the French company.

Michel, who has just turned 65, was due to relinquish his post in the coming months because of the company's mandatory retirement age of 65 and will remain chairman.

Gecina is in the throes of a shareholder shake-up after its two key Spanish shareholders filed forbankruptcy in October. Investment fund Blackstone (BX.N) and Canadian real-estate fund Ivanhoe Cambridge have since bought more of the company's debt.

"(Generali Real-Estate France Head) Philippe Depoux is set to be named as the next CEO of Gecina," one of the sources said.

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont and Lionel Laurent; Editing by Elena Berton)

Exclusive: Europeans lobby Fed's Tarullo over bank curbs

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By Lionel Laurent and Philipp Halstrick

PARIS/FRANKFURT | Fri Mar 22, 2013 4:24pm EDT

(Reuters) - European bankers are lobbying U.S. Federal Reserve board member Dan Tarullo in an attempt to dilute curbs that would tighten oversight of foreign banks in the United States and squeeze their profits in the world's biggest financial market.

Tarullo's plan would force foreign banks to group all their subsidiaries under a holding company, subject to the same capital standards as U.S. holding companies. The biggest banks would also need to hold liquidity buffers.

Bankers say the plan would worsen an already fragmented regulatory landscape as the European Union pushes ahead with plans to cap bankers' bonuses and to limit risky trading. Euro zone banks believe the combination will make it tough to compete for talent or for profits against U.S. rivals.

The heads of France's BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) and Germany's Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) recently met Tarullo following the adoption of his foreign bank proposals in December, sources with direct knowledge of the meetings said.

The Fed confirmed Tarullo met with Deutsche Bank on March 7. It did not have an immediate comment on the meeting with BNP Paribas.

Other lenders including Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) are putting pressure via representatives in lobbying hub Brussels, the sources said.

"It's an outrageous plan that will further balkanize the banking sector," said a French banking lobby source.

"Thank goodness we will have a banking union with the European Central Bank as chief supervisor in place soon. Tarullo's proposal will be the first issue to be addressed."

Fed records show that executives from Deutsche Bank and Paribas, including Deutsche's co-CEO Anshu Jain and BNP's CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, as well as officials from Britain's Barclays (BARC.L) and representatives from the French Embassy have met with Fed representatives in recent weeks.

Qatari bank looking beyond Europe

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By Lionel Laurent

CANNES, France, March 14 (Reuters) - The real-estate arm of Qinvest, the Qatari investment bank that helped fund London's Shard tower, will focus on the United States and its home market and avoid Europe this year, a top executive said.

The European market is increasingly crowded and facing the twin pressures of a fragile economy and fresh central bank liquidity driving up asset prices, Qinvest head Craig Cowie told Reuters. That is encouraging the company to channel its approximately $200 million of available property investment capital elsewhere, he said.

Qatari investors have been big post-financial crisis buyers of prime European real estate, from Harrods department store in London to the Peninsula Hotel in Paris. Qinvest has specific limitations, however, as it is not a deep-pocketed sovereign wealth fund and as it applies Sharia Islamic rules.

With targeted returns of up to 6 percent and over, the bank's plan is to focus on assets in U.S. retail - such as single-tenant units on New York City's Fifth Avenue - and in the less liquid and less crowded Qatari market.

"This year we are going to try and do a little bit more in Qatar and the North American market," Cowie said in an interview on the sidelines of the MIPIM property conference in Cannes. "The European market is just getting very crowded again."

Qinvest is a unit of Qatar Islamic Bank and is in the process of taking over Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes , though regulators have yet to approve the deal.

Cowie declined to comment on the situation beyond saying it was up to the regulator to decide. If the deal goes ahead, given that EFG does not have a real estate operation, Cowie said his division would probably continue investing as before.

Qinvest's European investments, including the Shard and industrial property assets in Paris, were acquired around two years ago at a time when debt was harder to come by and when financially robust investors were in shorter supply, Cowie said.

The bank has since sold its stake in the Shard.

"There's lots of new equity washing around - Chinese, Malaysian, North American," he said. "It's a lot more crowded and harder to do off-market or discreet deals. It's tougher to compete."

Cowie, a South African who previously worked for Al Rajhi in Saudi Arabia before joining Qinvest, also said that uncertain growth prospects were pressuring returns in Western Europe and putting the brakes on activity elsewhere.

"The world is still fragile ... Some parts of Europe are completely stalled," he added.

Analysis: Second swing at Asia growth plan for BNP

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By Swati Pandey and Lionel Laurent

HONG KONG/PARIS | Thu Mar 7, 2013 6:39pm EST

(Reuters) - BNP Paribas's (BNPP.PA) second attempt since 2010 to expand in Asia is a bold move by the bank, as it plans a big hiring push at a time when many Western banks in the region are still scaling back.

BNP's Asia revamp is the first sign this year of a broad regional,investment banking growth plan in a part of the world where revenues in the sector have dropped and costs have risen. While other banks are selectively growing certain investment banking or trading units amid broader cuts, BNP's ambitious plan to hire 1,300 bankers over three years in Asia is the most eye-catching move yet.

But in a change from its traditional business model in Asia -- partly forced upon it by regulatory pressure at home -- the bank plans less big corporate lending against its own balance sheet and more indirect financing and advisory work.

That could be difficult, say some analysts, in a region where corporate clients expect their banks to "pay to play".

"If BNP is thinking they are going to get those ancillary businesses without providing the loans, that's wishful thinking," said Ismael Pili, head of financials research for Asia at Macquarie Securities.

The damage inflicted on balance sheets by the eurozone crisis prompted BNP, like its peers, to withdraw parts of its business from Asia in 2011, offloading billions of dollars of loans to other banks in a painful bout of "de-leveraging".

Now, supported by a stronger capital base than its domestic rivals, BNP hopes to build on its traditional strength in trade finance and fixed income and derivatives in Asia whilst others remain hunkered down in Europe.

"We have completed the adaptation process and we're out of the blocks ahead of most of our competitors," said Eric Raynaud, CEO of Asia Pacific, in an emailed response to Reuters.