Nicolas Namias, Chief Executive Officer of Natixis, said: “For the past ten years, Natixis has successfully implemented a model which has created value for all its stakeholders: clients, employees and investors. Over recent months we have implemented several strategic and operational decisions, which have put Natixis back on track with is value creation ambition. The current and foreseeable trends on the financial and regulatory fronts have led us to reconsider the Groupe BPCE and Natixis’s organisational structure, for the benefit of all stakeholders. This project would constitute a new step in the development of each of Natixis’s businesses – asset and wealth management, corporate and investment banking, insurance and payments – with an increased strategic manoeuvrability thanks to the Group. Likewise, the support functions of Global Financial Services and its businesses could operate more closely with the Group’s functions, with converging processes and tools. This new organisation aims at combining short-term performance requirements with a long-term perspective. I am pleased that the Groupe BPCE’s offer confirms the place of Natixis’s businesses at the heart of its strategy and demonstrates its trust in Natixis’s teams, while also offering an attractive liquidity opportunity to shareholders. Upon completion of this tender offer, the Groupe BPCE will become the largest privately held banking group in Europe.”