@ La Baule...

At the seaside resort of La Baule, France, on the sidelines of the World Investment Conference, I sat down with...

NYSE Euronext's head of international listings, Ronald Kent, who said the transatlantic exchange operator expects to list more Chinese companies this year than in 2010, promising a fresh influx of steady fees. (Read on...)

Greek Minister of State Haris Pamboukis, who said he was cautious about any full-on external involvement in Greece's privatisation programme, even if he was a "fervent supporter" of any outside support that was just technical. (Read on...)

HSBC's Head of Global Research Bronwyn Curtis, who said Greek sovereign yields were making markets nervous again and that the bank's investment allocation in cash had increased since the end of Q1. (Read on...)

Tunisian Employment Minister Said Aidi, who said Tunisia would suffer rising unemployment through most of 2011 as the economy struggles to grow. (Read on...)

Moroccan Trade and Industry Minister Ahmed Reda Chami, who said Morocco may slightly reduce its growth forecasts for 2011 once the impact of broader unrest in the Arab world and the recent bomb attack in Marrakesh becomes clear. (Read on...)

Hungarian EU Affairs Minister Eniko Gyori, who said the reported arrest of Ratko Mladic was a positive step for Serbia's bid to join the European Union and for the admission of more Balkan countries in general.

Veolia's executive in charge of international affairs, Joachim Bitterlich, who said the French utility expects international revenue to keep growing and sees opportunities in Asia and North America. (Read on...)

BNP Offers Smooth Transition With New CEO

By Lionel Laurent

PARIS, May 11 (Reuters) - BNP Paribas, France's biggest listed bank, unveiled a well-flagged handover to new Chief Executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafe at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, a move that promises a smooth transition.

Bonnafe, a trusted insider and long seen as the natural heir to current CEO Baudouin Prot, will take the reins on Dec. 1. Prot will take the chairmanship from 69-year-old Michel Pebereau, whose retirement had been widely expected.

"Our new management will be able to offer BNP ... all the development plans it deserves," Bonnafe told shareholders.

The bespectacled, rugby-loving Bonnafe will inherit a bank that has emerged a winner from the crisis but which is overwhelmingly exposed to mature Western markets and which faces tougher rules that will make banking a less profitable business.

There is little to suggest he will rock the boat and some analysts warn growth will be more challenging in future.

"Looking past 2011, we see very limited levers to grow earnings per share and wonder how BNP will deliver," RBS analyst Jorge Mayo said.

(Read on...)

French Banks Seen Resisting Capital Crackdown

By Lionel Laurent

(Reuters) - French banks are likely to stand pat and resist the fresh wave of capital increases across the sector ahead of Europe-wide stress tests this year, helped by a protective regulator and benign borrowing costs.

In recent weeks, several banks including Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo and Germany's Commerzbank have announced plans to tap shareholders for fresh equity ahead of tougher incoming capital rules under the "Basel III" regime.

But French lenders such as BNP Paribas and Societe Generale -- which report first-quarter results on Wednesday and Thursday respectively -- are seen sticking to their guns and refusing to take part in the race for cash, thanks in part to the Bank of France's support.

"There is less need for the regulator to ask French banks to carry surplus capital (than in other countries)," said Yohan Salleron, fund manager at Mandarine Gestion, with 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) under management. "Their business model is less risky ... and they have sizeable deposits."

(Read on...)

Flop Art: Warhol Dream Fund Turns To Nightmare

By Lionel Laurent

As the financial crisis loomed in late 2007, Federico Moccia was in an upbeat mood.

The 40-year-old ex-JPMorgan banker with a penchant for works by pop artist Andy Warhol had created a $600 million hedge fund and was preparing to move to Asia to woo the region's deep-pocketed investors.

After making a big impression on the Singapore art scene with his recent Warhol exhibition, Moccia was confident the brewing U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown could not dent his plan to stoke returns from his "Cannonball" fund with art and real estate investments.

"I had received a working permit from the Singapore authorities," recalls Italian-born Moccia, speaking from his London office. "The future was bright."

Moccia never got there.

(Read on...)

BNP Hedge Fund Unit Tightens Rules In Stormy Market

(This story had the dubious honour of being parodied by Michael Fowke's 'Money Is The Way' blog, which reads a bit like Ezra Pound channeling Jim Cramer.)

By Lionel Laurent

PARIS, April 13 (Reuters) - A $110 million hedge-fund portfolio part-advised by BNP Paribas subsidiary Fauchier Partners is to impose tougher rules on cash withdrawals by investors, after a volatile month for the hedge-fund industry.

The Fidam fund, whose main investment advisor is Cayman Islands-based Fides, will require three months' notice for redemptions instead of one from April 30, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

"The redemption notice period...will be extended to three months plus six calendar days prior to the relevant valuation day," Fidam's board wrote on March 30.

"The notice period may be waived at the discretion of the board of directors provided the relevant sub-fund has sufficient liquid assets to accommodate the redemptions and a fair treatment of all investors is assured."

(Read on...)

AXA CEO Insists Strategy Will Pay Off

By Lionel Laurent and Nina Sovich

PARIS, April 1 (Reuters) - AXA's chief executive Henri de Castries is facing growing questions about the French insurer's push into emerging markets and anaemic share price performance, but the 57-year-old former paratrooper says he is confident his strategy will win through.

Although AXA shares have strongly rebounded this year after a dismal performance in 2010, they trade at among the lowest price-to-book multiples in the sector and are plagued by perceptions that the group is ill-equipped for a post-crisis world.

In an interview with Reuters de Castries blamed the stock's underperformance on exposure to rock-bottom interest rates in Europe and the United States, as well as difficulties closing a long-running deal to buy out its Asia-Pacific operations.

But he said the group's 2015 turnaround plan and the closure of the AXA Asia-Pacific deal would close the valuation gap and prove that there is no need to adjust the strategy.

"It's clear that the sector has not been performing well and last year we have been performing worse than the sector," de Castries said.

"But it is in the process of being corrected because our actions are becoming more visible and because long-term interest rates are not the threat they were seen as being last year."

(Read on...)

UBS Tricked Madoff Victims With Prospectus -Lawyer

By Lionel Laurent and Matthieu Protard

Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX) "tricked" victims of Bernard Madoff's giant Ponzi scheme by sponsoring a Luxembourg-registered fund that for four years fed assets directly to the fraudster without saying so in its prospectus, a Paris court heard on Wednesday.

The "Luxalpha" fund was deemed safe by investors because of the link to UBS, which was presented in the prospectus as sole custodian of the assets, said Jean-Pierre Martel, a lawyer representing 78 French investors who invested 28 million euros ($39.69 million) in total in Luxalpha.

UBS denies the charge.

"The prospectus was saying: 'this product is 100 percent UBS, you can go for it'," Martel told a hearing at the Paris Court of Commerce.

"Here we have investors who were shamefully cheated by one bank ... with information that was wrong and dishonest."

A verdict date has been set for June 9.

(Read on...)