2nd Feb 2006 09:23
HSBC Holdings PLC02 February 2006 AXA FRANCE, BNP PARIBAS, HSBC FRANCE AND SOCIETE GENERALE CREATE A JOINT PLATFORM FOR EMPLOYEE SAVINGS PLAN ADMINISTRATION Axa Epargne Entreprise, BNP Paribas Epargne & Retraite Entreprises (BNP ParibasERE), HSBC Epargne Entreprise (HSBC EE) and Societe Generale are to create ajoint platform for employee savings plan administration in France. The joint venture, a simplified limited company (Societe Anonyme Simplifiee),with a capital of €213,607 on 1 January 2006, will be known as Service EpargneEntreprises. Ownership of its capital will be updated every year and will varyaccording to the volume of business given to it by each of the partners. It wasas follows on 1 January 2006: - 11.7% by Axa Epargne Entreprise,- 33.5% by BNP Paribas ERE,- 18.1% by HSBC EE,- 36.7% by Societe Generale. This platform is set to become the leading player in employee savings accountadministration in France, with more than four million accounts under managementand over 300 employees. This joint venture will allow the four partners to takeadvantage of excellent growth opportunities offered by the employee savingsmarket. The aim is to provide a growing number of companies and employees with acomprehensive range of high quality services, to support the expansion ofemployee savings and to provide a centralised account management service inassociation with several fund management companies. The platform will allow the pooling of administration resources while at thesame time allowing the partners to continue to distribute own-branded productsto their own clients. Partners will be charged for the administration servicesreceived. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the joint venture will be NicoleRoosz-Longobardi, with Xavier Colomer appointed as Deputy Chief ExecutiveOfficer and Veronique Raby-Lemoine as Chief Operating Officer (HSBC). Notes to editors: The Axa groupThe Axa group is a world leader in financial protection. Axa operates ageographically diversified set of businesses, with a focus on the markets ofWestern Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. Axa reported €935billion in assets under management at 30 June 2005, and revenues of €67 billionand underlying earnings of €2,640 million in fiscal 2004. For the first sixmonths of 2005, Axa posted revenues of €37 billion and underlying earnings of€1,761 million under IFRS. Corporate retirement savings at Axa FranceAxa France offers its 9 million individual, professional and business customersa range of insurance, savings and support solutions, as well as bankingservices, geared to their needs. In 2005, Axa France became the number oneplayer in the French corporate retirement savings market, with over €20 billionin assets under management (€14.8 billion in collective retirement savings and€6.7 billion in employee savings) and 20,000 business customers. Its offering ismarketed by 12,000 sales staff (general agents, sales employees, brokers, etc.).AXA France's corporate retirement savings team combines the various deferredremuneration systems available to design a suitable solution, irrespective ofthe size and requirements of the businesses and their senior management teams.Once systems are implemented, AXA France's teams provide support to employeesand the business in the form of a steady stream of information and follow-up. BNP Paribas:BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is a European leader in banking and financialservices. It also has a large and steadily growing presence in the United Statesand strong positions in Asia. BNP Paribas is the largest bank in the euro zonein terms of net earnings (2004). It has an extensive international network withoffices in over 85 countries and more than 105,000 employees, including almost80,000 in Europe. BNP Paribas has key positions in its three core businesses:Corporate and investment banking, Asset management & services and Retailbanking. BNP Paribas Epargne & Retraite Entreprises:BNP Paribas Epargne & Retraite Entreprises, a subsidiary of the BNP ParibasGroup, is the first player in the French market to offer a global approachencompassing employee savings, employee share ownership, pensions and grouphealth and disability insurance. At 31 December 2005, BNP Paribas Epargne &Retraite Entreprises managed almost €12.3 billion of assets for 15,000 corporateclients. HSBC Holdings plc:HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in theworld. It has over 110 million customers worldwide served by more than 9,700 offices in 77 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. It had USD1,467 billion in assets at 30 June 2005. HSBC is "the world's local bank". For more information, please see www.hsbc.com. HSBC Epargne EntrepriseHSBC Epargne Entreprise is the wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC Francespecialised in corporate savings plans. HSBC Epargne Entreprise is one of theleaders providers in France of global and personalised solutions encompassingthe various corporate savings vehicles, including employee savings, employeeshare ownership, group retirement plans and stock options plans. With some 40 years of expertise, HSBC Epargne Entreprise offers a full andsegmented range of employee savings products and services. It caters to thedaily needs of 10,000 businesses and manages 800,000 savers' accounts. Assetsunder management totalled €3 billion at 30 June 2005. Its services are availableacross the HSBC group's banking network in France. For more information, pleasesee www.hsbcee.com Societe GeneraleSociete Generale is one of the leading financial services groups in theeurozone. With a workforce of 93,000 worldwide, its activities are focused onthree main business lines: - Retail banking and specialised financial services, which has almost 19 million personal customers in France and abroad.- Global investment management & services, where the group is one of the leaders in the eurozone with €1,317 billion in assets under custody and €370 billion in assets under management at end-September 2005.- Corporate and Investment Banking, which has long been among the European and world leaders in the euro capital markets, derivatives and structured financing. Societe Generale appears in the four main international sustainable developmentindices. The bank can be contacted via www.socgen.com. Societe Generale and employee savingsOne of the French leaders with market share of 14.3 per cent, the employeessavings unit of the Societe Generale group had €10.2 billion under management atend-December 2005. It handles the accounts of 1.5 million savers resident inFrance and other countries in 16 different languages. It implements employee savings solutions (including corporate savings plans,PERCO corporate collective pension plans, employee share ownership) for 10 400companies in and outside France, to which it also provides support in relationto their group-wide plans (stock options, defined contribution and benefitplans), with the assistance of the Societe Generale group's specialised units. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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