Deals
BNP Stock Sale Hits Wall Street Firms Amid Election Jitters
- Banks left holding hundreds of millions of euros in stock
- Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citi and Goldman managed sale
French Polls Show Macron's Lead Holding
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The Belgian government’s move to sell stock in BNP Paribas SA days before a crucial election in France took the market by surprise and resulted in the banks managing the sale being left with unsold stock worth hundreds of millions of euros, according to people familiar with the matter.
The unusual structure, called a forward-sale transaction, means that the seller won’t deliver the shares for a month, instead of the typical settlement period in Europe of up to three business days. The deal was set up so that Belgium will be able to hang on to the stock long enough to receive a dividend of 2.70 euros a share for the last financial year on its entire, pre-sale stake, the government said Wednesday.