Hostile Bankers

A loyal yet anonymous reader (his institution is almost certainly involved in the ABN deal in one way or another) sends me more information on the subject of hostile takeover bids in the banking industry. Is there, indeed, a banker other than Fred Goodwin of RBS who goes in for such things?

Michel Pebereau of BNP made two hostile bids (for Paribas and SocGen) at the same time, winning Paribas. Also, specifically with respect to Fred Goodwin, he hasn't ever made a hostile bid. He certainly takes the credit for executing on NatWest, but in the first place, George Mathewson was CEO at the time and in the second place, NatWest was already in play when RBS made its bid, the initial hostile offer having been made by Peter Birt of Bank of Scotland. (Birt, Mathewson and Goodwin have all since been knighted).

Goodwin, it should be noted, is the only one of these men who remains a banking-industry executive, although Pebereau remains chairman of BNP Paribas.

As far as the US banking system is concerned, I can't see a hostile bid ever happening – there are just too many regulators who would be too hard to placate. But you never know.