Générale de Banque

In May 1987, Générale de Banque was approached by AMRO Bank, board chairman Roelof Nelissen knew Generale Bank's chairman of the executive committee Eric de Villegas de Clercamp (1924-1993) well. Both banks were big at home, but internationally their position was limited. With the coming European unification, the combination would become stronger with a balance sheet total of 250 billion guilders, making it the fourth largest bank within Europe. Disagreement did exist over growth strategy: for the Générale de Banque, the focus was on Europe, while AMRO Bank had global aspirations. The involvement of General Bank shareholders complicated the talks. Both Société Générale de Belgique and other shareholder groups, including Assurances Générale, played an important role. The talks were conducted in secret and progressed slowly.

In January 1988, Carlo de Benedetti made a hostile bid for the Société Générale de Belgique. Strong pressure on the merger partners led to preliminary plans being brought out on Feb. 12, 1988. A cooperation agreement was signed whereby Générale de Banque and AMRO Bank aimed for a banking combination within three years. The first step was the creation of a joint holding company under the name Tuba Holding International.

Progress was still being made in the first six months of the alliance. With the departure of de Villegas de Clercamp, the alliance lost an important partner. His successor Paul-Emmanuel Baron Janssen was more reluctant, no agreement could be reached on international expansion and on the cost and financial structure of the combination. In the summer of 1989, after a year and a half of talks, AMRO Bank lost confidence in a good outcome, and in September 1989 a press conference ended the alliance.[3]

In 1995, the bank gained a foothold in the Netherlands by acquiring Crédit Lyonnais Bank Nederland (CLBN), the latter name disappearing for which Generale Bank Nederland replaced it. CLBN had 79 branches. The acquisition had no impact on employment. CLBN's ongoing reorganization plan, which provided for downsizing without forced layoffs to 2,100 jobs by 1996, was implemented as usual. CLBN's chairman of the board, W. van Driel, stepped down and was succeeded by Marc Gedopt. Gedopt had worked at Generale Bank since 1986. Generale Bank did not take over everything, the dubious loans, especially in the film sector and in the United Kingdom, were left out of the takeover. Generale Bank paid 1.2 billion guilders, which was about fifteen times CLBN's expected annual profit in 1995.

Fortis had also attempted to buy CLBN. The Dutch-Belgian bank-insurer had offered hundreds of millions less for CLBN in the early phase of the sales process, but steadily increased the price. In the end, the difference between Generale Bank's and Fortis's offer was very small. Former CLBN chief executive Van Driel called Fortis's course of action "clumsy."[3]

In 1998, the bank's major shareholder, Société Générale de Belgique, which had been acquired by Compagnie de Suez in 1998, indicated that it wanted to sell its 30% controlling interest in the bank. Fortis's Maurice Lippens had good relations with Suez's top executive, Gérard Mestrallet, and quickly reached an agreement. In May 1998, after months of difficult negotiations and with the reluctance of the bank's executive committee, Fortis made an offer of 22 billion guilders in shares. ABN AMRO made a counteroffer of 24 billion shortly thereafter. Beforehand, ABN AMRO had held extensive discussions with the executive committee of Generale Bank, and the latter was to manage the combination's European banks. The management would be in the hands of Rijkman Groenink (ABN AMRO) and Fred Chaffart of Generale Bank would become vice chairman, but the executive committee had a minority in the board of directors, comparable to the board of directors and supervisory board in the Netherlands. After Fortis increased its bid to some 28 billion guilders, the majority of the board of directors of Generale Bank voted in favor of Fortis' bid. In 1998, the purchase was completed. On June 23, 1999, all the Fortis banking companies merged, but the merger was not seen on the streets until March 21, 2000, when the name Fortis Bank was henceforth used.[4]

Fortis Bank was created in 1999 from the merger of Générale de Banque and ASLK / CGER in Belgium, and Generale Bank Nederland, VSB Bank and MeesPierson in the Netherlands. During the credit crisis, parent company Fortis ran into major financial problems by stalling in its acquisition of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., eventually resulting in a nationalization of itself and the newly acquired parts from the ABN AMRO estate. The group's banking activities were split into a Belgian and Dutch part. The Belgian operations initially came into the hands of the Belgian state. Since 2009, it has been part of the French bank BNP Paribas and continues under the name BNP Paribas Fortis.