Natixis, once David Einhorn's baby, is set to cut 700 jobs, we've been told

(this was confirmed a day after we put it out)

PARIS, Oct 15 (Reuters) - French investment bank Natixis is set to announce a plan to cut 700 jobs by 2015 as part of a drive to reduce costs, according to two union sources and documents obtained by Reuters.

The job cuts will affect most business lines including equity brokerage, equity derivatives, advisory and global transaction banking, with most of the impact hitting staff in France rather than other countries, according to the documents.

"Management held a meeting on Monday and presented the restructuring plan for the business lines through to 2015," one of the sources who attended the meeting said. "The total job cuts will be 700, according to the plan."

A spokeswoman for Natixis declined to comment.

Natixis, the smallest and youngest of France's listed investment banks, has already gone through a first wave of restructuring and sold swathes of risky assets after it was bailed out by its cooperative retail parent BPCE during the 2008 financial crisis.

But like larger rivals BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, the bank is preparing a new strategic plan and looking for ways to cut costs as eurozone crisis fears dissipate and investors focus on banks' ability to return cash and grow profitably.

Natixis took one step towards a new structure earlier this year when it said it would simplify its finances by shedding a 20 percent stake in its parent BPCE, paving the way for higher dividends in the future

That French World Cup qualifying match could mean extra cash for broadcaster TF1 next year

Tuesday night's remarkable 3-0 victory to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit in France's World Cup play-off against Ukraine was as uplifting for TF1's shares as for national pride. Though the broadcaster rarely books a direct profit from tournaments such as the World Cup, the company's shares jumped by more than 5 percent on Wednesday morning as investors looked forward to the indirect gains from improved relationships with advertisers, the pull of a young, male audience and a boost to brand awareness. "If you have the national team in (the tournament), it makes a huge difference," said Claudio Aspesi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. "Placing your best customers' ads in the best slots in the right games will win you loyalty and goodwill from customers. "We had assumed for 2014-15 fundamentally no growth ... but we were starting from the assumption that France would not qualify." (Full story here: http://reut.rs/I5lirM)

Vinci's ubiquitous parking lots seen attracting 2 bln euro preliminary bid values, sources tell us

UPDATE 2-Vinci parking unit bids due end Nov, valued around 2 bln euros-sources

Vinci wants to keep 25 pct as part of deal -sources

Ardian, Credit Agricole studying joint bid -sources

Vinci, Ardian, Credit Agricole decline to comment

By Lionel Laurent and Matthieu Protard

PARIS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - First-round bids for French construction and concessions firm Vinci’s SGEF.PA parking-concession business are due by end-November, and are expected to value the firm around 2 billion euros ($2.69 billion), three sources close to the deal said.

Vinci plans to keep a 25 percent stake in the Vinci Park division and expects a range of bids to value the entire business at between 1.8 billion and 2.3 billion euros, two of the sources told Reuters.

A Vinci spokesman declined to comment on Friday. "The preliminary bids are due at the end of the month," one of the sources said. "Vinci is committed to selling but on condition that it gets to the expected price."

Vinci Park operates 2,600 parking-lot assets in 14 countries and posted 615 million euros in revenue in 2012. Analysts say the unit is profitable but exposed to the mature, slow-growing French market. A deal would offer Vinci the opportunity to raise cash to reinvest in its airports business, where growth is more promising.

Vinci Park's annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are at around 200 million euros ($269.49 million), according to sources close to the deal. Vinci has said its airport business, which recently took over Portugal's ANA, has an EBITDA of around 270 million euros.

Potential buyers include insurers, private-equity funds and infrastructure funds - mainly long-term investors interested in recurring cash flows - and they are looking at teaming up for consortium bids, according to the sources.

Private-equity firm Ardian, formerly known as AXA Private Equity, has told Reuters it is interested in the asset and two sources said it was teaming up with Credit Agricole's CAGR.PA insurance arm to study a possible bid. Ardian and Credit Agricole's insurance arm declined to comment.

"There is appetite for this type of asset and the bids will match expectations," one of the sources said.

Interested parties are also weighing up the possibility that a change of ownership may result in a weaker negotiating position with local governments and councils that award parking concessions, the source said. The risk is that some concessions may be awarded to rivals or will have to be renegotiated, he said.

Natixis owner BPCE plans to double profit by 2017 -sources

(we put this out several days ahead of the official announcement, which confirmed the lot)

(Full story)


* Due to unveil new strategic plan next week
* Eyes 900 mln eur in cost cuts, more cross-selling
* French banks grapple with weak economy, tougher regulatio

By Lionel Laurent and Matthias Blamont
PARIS, Nov 8 (Reuters) - BPCE, the parent group of French investment bank Natixis, will unveil a plan next week to double net income by 2017 to 4 billion euros ($5.35 billion) on the back of cost cuts and cross-selling, two sources told Reuters.

BPCE, which is set to present details of its strategy on Wednesday ahead of a Natixis investor day on Thursday, will be the first of France's big banks to explain to investors how it plans to boost growth in the face of tougher regulation after the 2008 financial crisis and French economic weakness.

"BPCE believes it can achieve 900 million euros in cost cuts and a doubling of net income to 4 billion euros between 2014 and 2017," said one of the sources with knowledge of the strategy. "There will also be a target of 800 million euros of extra cross-selling synergies.

"The strategy will be to cross-sell as much as possible with Natixis and (mortgage unit) Credit Foncier to increase assets under management, capital and liquidity...The emphasis is also on speeding up cost cuts."

 

 

A BPCE spokeswoman declined to comment.

Despite replenishing their balance sheets for years after the crisis, France's banks - and their peers across Europe - remain under pressure to find new ways of doing business as new global legislation curbs risk-taking and ramps up costs.

Natixis' bigger rivals BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole are all due to present new strategic plans in 2014. SocGen and Credit Agricole on Thursday announced an asset swap designed to help narrow their business focus.

The fragile outlook for French banks' home market, where unemployment is stuck at 11 percent, was reinforced on Friday when ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut France's sovereign credit rating by one notch to AA from AA+.

Under the leadership of Chairman Francois Perol, parachuted in by former President Nicolas Sarkozy to prevent Natixis from collapsing during the financial crisis, Natixis has slashed its balance sheet and focused more on getting fees from stock and debt issuances than risky trading.

Unlisted retail bank BPCE, also headed by Perol, has also taken steps to better integrate Natixis into its nationwide network of 8,000 branches: Natixis is now in control of the group's insurance business and sources told Reuters it would work on developing products to cross-sell with BPCE.

But despite the bank's restructuring efforts, which have boosted capital strength and driven Natixis shares up over 100 percent year-to-date, analysts say cost cuts are needed in investment banking and asset management to improve returns.

Natixis has already laid out plans to cut 700 jobs across several investment-banking business lines.

Hundreds more job cuts on the way at SocGen, union reveals

(Full story)

PARIS, Nov 6 (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale plans to cut 375 jobs across Europe in its securities-services business, a staff union said in a newsletter posted online after meeting with management.

The cuts will mostly hit French staff, while around 100 jobs in Italy, Luxembourg, Germany and Ireland are being targeted as part of the plan, the newsletter said. A second union source confirmed to Reuters that management had said around 275 jobs in France were at risk.

A SocGen spokeswoman declined to comment.

SocGen, France's No. 2 listed bank, is in the midst of a drive to slash costs and cut staff to offset the cost of new curbs on risk and a still-uncertain economic recovery in Europe.

Securities services, or custody services, offers settlement, safekeeping and reporting of customers' securities.

The bank is separately finalizing a plan to cut up to 700 mainly back-office jobs at its Paris headquarters and is targeting around 420 voluntary departures as part of the plan, union officials have said.

Meet R2-D2, your new robot banker

(Full story) (and Business Insider link, just 'cause I love their enthusiasm)

VELIZY, France (Reuters) - Installation art, interactive walls and a robot doorman; the flagship branches of the world's top banks have come a long way from the iron grilles and potted plants of old.
To compete against online-only rivals and to attract a new generation of customers to branches, banks are installing sleek interiors and hi-tech gadgetry.

ATMs that read fingerprints, touch-screen desks to flick through your finances and videoconference units for expert advice are all on display at payments-technology firm Wincor Nixdorf's <WING.DE> showroom in the Paris suburb of Velizy.

"Banks are investing a lot in their retail branches," said Steve Bousabata, head of Wincor's French banking services arm. "They want customers to come back."

The reason is clear: after years of relying on branches to drive retail revenue, European banks expect such networks to supply only 62 percent of sales by 2020 from today's average of 81 percent, according to Equinox Consulting.

Banks, especially those still nursing losses from the financial crisis, are under pressure to cut costs and are balancing the need to pare back branch networks by sprucing up select outlets.

But branches are still the first point of contact for many customers and are still the primary location for product sales like mortgages, new accounts and insurance, underlining the importance of upgrading them for a more tech-savvy generation.

The difficulty is knowing exactly what belongs in the branch of the future and what is better left behind.

"Are all the things we see in branches today going to be seen in branches tomorrow? I very much doubt that," said Mike Baxter, head of management consultancy Bain's Americas Financial Services practice.
"There's an awful lot of experimentation of stuff that turns out to be unsuccessful and uneconomic."

Flashy "bank of the future" branches mixing gadgetry with design similar to Apple's <AAPL.O> minimalist stores have been opened by BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA> in Paris, Barclays <BARC.L> in London and Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> in Berlin - at an estimated cost of 5 million euros ($7 million) each.
They include lounge areas, giant interactive screens and other trimmings such as handbags for sale and pieces of art.

Gauging their success is tricky. BNP was willing to give data on its refurbished flagship branch near the Paris Opera - which three years ago was fitted with a wall covered in plants, iPads for customer use and a touch-screen desk - saying that footfall was up 40 percent and new clients up 25 percent.

Italy's Unicredit <CRDI.MI> also said that footfall and new business were up at its newly revamped flagship branch in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, which offers "welcoming scents" and a touch-screen wall. Visits are up by an average of 60 percent while loans and deposits have doubled, a spokeswoman said.

On the other hand, BNP has done away with some ideas that failed to click with consumers: it has scrapped the iPads and touch-screen desk in favor of an interactive wall.

Deutsche Bank and Barclays declined to give data on single branches.

More broadly, some 88 percent of bank executives view their flagship branches in main street areas as being "successful" in promoting brand awareness, according to a survey by Equinox.

Eurozone banks to clean house ahead of ECB review

(Full story)

By Lionel Laurent and Helene Durand

PARIS/LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters/IFR) - Euro zone banks are expected to issue more debt, increase loan provisions and speed up asset sales in the next couple of months as they knock their balance sheets into shape ahead of the European Central Bank's (ECB) sector health-check next year.

The ECB will take a snapshot of loans and other assets, including holdings of government debt, from the balance sheets of 128 banks at the end of this year and scrutinise their riskiness before it takes over as the bloc's banking supervisor late next year.

The starting point for the ECB's Asset Quality Review (AQR) gives the euro zone's banks less than 10 weeks to burnish their books, and small to mid-sized lenders in Italy, Spain and Portugal are considered most likely to take pre-emptive action.

"Banks will want to take corrective measures before the end of the year. It's far better not to be singled out by the AQR as having had a problem and fixed it in 2014; it's better to avoid that and do it now," said Mike Harrison, a banks analyst at Barclays.

The most straightforward way of reducing the perceived riskiness of their books would be for banks to set aside more money to cover potential future loan losses, which probably implies taking a hit to fourth-quarter earnings.

"The earnings risk element of the AQR means it could take longer for the earnings cycles at many banks to normalise," said Harrison.

Eurozone banks have already shrunk their balance sheets by 2.9 trillion euros ($4 trillion) since May 2012 - by renewing fewer loans, repurchase and derivatives contracts and selling non-core businesses - according to data from the ECB.

Lenders could bring forward asset sales, including loan books, equity stakes and subsidiaries, before year-end.

"Now that we have the wording and that we know the rules of the game, I believe that some banks will feel like they have some room for manoeuvre," said Khalid Krim, Managing Director, Head of European Capital Solutions at Morgan Stanley.

"Concerning deleveraging or asset sales, we can realistically expect to see an acceleration of the timing."
Bankers said they would be careful, however, not to sell at such a pace that they had to accept poor pricing.