France's biggest bank BNP Paribas ruled out a tie-up with Societe Generale this morning, dashing speculation it would buy another domestic rival after failing in a bid to seize control of Credit Lyonnais.
BNP Chairman Mr Michel Pebereau made the remarks as BNP posted a 20 per cent drop in fourth-quarter profit, hit by weak stock markets, and said it would make a decision on what to do with its stake in smaller rival Credit Lyonnais at the "appropriate time".
Speaking to reporters at the presentation of the bank's 2002 results, Pebereau said the execution risks associated with a SocGen deal were prohibitively high.
Pebereau scuppered a friendly deal between SocGen and Paribas three years ago, snaring Paribas for himself and nearly taking over SocGen as well.
SocGen management actively resisted BNP's overtures in 1999 and has been openly hostile to a deal with its larger rival since then.
BNP aggressively pursued Lyonnais at the end of last year until Credit Agricole sealed a friendly takeover of their common target in December.
The largest bank in the euro currency zone by market value, BNP said it earned 696 million euros ($756 million) in the fourth-quarter compared with 866 million euros in the year-ago quarter.
BNP's gross operating profit, or profit before reserves and one-time expenses, fell 9.4 per cent to 1.44 billion euros, while net banking income, or revenues, edged down 4.5 per cent to 4.20 billion in the quarter. All the figures were in line or slightly better than consensus estimates.