Markets heated up for ABN Amro on Friday.
Its price jumped 18.4% following rumors that BNP Paribas was interested in the Dutch bank.
At the close, the stock was up 5.65%.
According to Bloomberg, BNP Paribas has expressed interest in a potential takeover of ABN Amro, nationalized after the 2008 financial crisis and in which the Dutch state still owns 56%.
The tricolor group would have contacted the government to discuss a possible operation.
Information also advanced by the Reuters agency.
However, according to a source familiar with the matter, if a meeting was able to take place with the Dutch authorities, it was more for a service proposal.
BNP Paribas declined to comment.
To discover
Find all the results of the legislative elections
Taxes 2022: all about your tax return
The Dutch government does not seem interested, at this stage, in a sale on its part to BNP Paribas and the negotiations would not have succeeded, according to Bloomberg.
At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Finance admittedly indicated that it had sought advice with a view to a possible sale of assets from ABN Amro.
But he would prefer to continue to sell securities on the market, which would allow him to raise funds while retaining some control of the bank.
"Buying ABN Amro would be logical for BNP Paribas
," says Jérôme Legras, head of research at Axiom AI.
The bank is solid and the rise in rates will enable it to improve its profitability.
Above all, it would allow BNP Paribas to expand into Benelux.”
But such an operation would be
“not in accordance with the strategy of the banking group, which has set itself the objective of not making large acquisitions”
, notes a person close to the bank.