SocGen CIB looking to hire 30-40 bankers -paper

MILAN, July 10 (Reuters) - Societe Generale's (SOGN.PA) corporate and investment bank (CIB) is looking to hire up to 40 bankers, mainly outside France, CIB head Michel Peretie told Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore in an interview.

"We have important but realistic ambitions. We want to hire between 30 and 40 investment bankers and bankers specialised in mergers and acquisitions, essentially outside of France, with particular attention to Italy, Spain, Germany and Great Britain," he said.

"We want to be among the top investment and financing banks in Europe," he added in the interview published on Friday.

He also said now was the time to take advantage of the reduced presence of U.S. banks on the European market.

"We need to be ready to satisfy a need companies have for financing, which is enormous," Peretie said. (Editing by Will Waterman)