How it started
Creation of BNP Paribas Group
In 1999, BNP and Société Générale fought a complex battle on the stock market, with Société Générale bidding for Paribas and BNP bidding for Société Générale and counter-bidding for Paribas. BNP's bid for Société Générale failed, while its bid for Paribas succeeded, which led to a merger of BNP and Paribas one year later on 23 May 2000.
In 2006, BNP Paribas purchased Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), Italy's sixth-largest bank. On 9 August 2007, BNP Paribas became the first major financial group to acknowledge the impact of the sub-prime crisis by closing two funds exposed to it. This day is now generally seen as the start of the 2008 financial crisis and the bank's quick reaction saved it from the fate of other large European banks such as UBS.
2008 financial crisis and acquisitions
On 6 October 2008, BNP took over 75% of troubled bank Fortis' activities in Belgium, and 66% in Luxembourg, in exchange for the Belgian government becoming the new group's major shareholder. The sales of the Fortis shares was suspended by a court order from the Court of Appeal on Friday, 12 December. In the end of January, the Belgian government and BNP negotiated for a 75% partnership in Fortis Bank Belgium. Fortis Insurance Belgium would be reintegrated in Fortis Holding.
On 11 February, Fortis' shareholders decided that Fortis Bank Belgium and Fortis Insurance Belgium should not become the property of BNP Paribas. However, the acquisition was completed, and BNP Paribas took 75% shareholding and renamed the new subsidiary BNP Paribas Fortis. After this only Fortis Insurance International was left in Fortis Holding and this was renamed as Ageas, a business that had Insurance all over Europe and Asia. In April 2024, it was announced BNP Paribas had acquired Fosun International's entire 9% stake in Ageas, worth €730 million. The remaining Fortis Bank Netherlands was in the hands of the Dutch Government which merged it with other ABN AMRO holdings it already owned under the name ABN AMRO.
From Wikipedia’s article on BNP Paribas, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3