SocGen to add staff, outlets in China

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Societe Generale plans to at least double its China staff in 2009 and to expand its network in the world's fastest-growing major economy to 40 to 50 outlets in the next five years, a top banker said on Wednesday.

Societe Generale launched its wholly owned incorporated unit in China in September, making it one of about a dozen foreign banks authorized to have wider access to the country's roughly $2 trillion of personal savings.

Before the launch of its China unit, Societe Generale focused on corporate and investment banking businesses through its five branches in China, but now it is prepared to offer a wide range of services, Pascal Sefrin, head of its corporate and investment banking for China, said at the Reuters China Summit.

"For us, it's a major milestone because it opens up a wealth of opportunities for us in China," said Sefrin, referring to the launch of its China unit.

"With this new license and new platform, we will be able have a much more global and deeper reach into the China market by extending our customer portfolio toward more Chinese corporates and, going forward, to individual clients," he said in an interview at Reuters News offices in Shanghai.

The bank currently has 330 staff in China and it plans to at least double its China headcount in 2009 to support its rapid expansion, said Sefrin.

"Recruitment is on-going. We are in the phrase now that we need to build up as we want to roll out various businesses of the bank in China," he said.

EYE ON ASIA

In 2007, Societe Generale lost to Citigroup Inc in a nearly two-year protracted battle to buy into troubled Guangdong Development Bank, which is now under the U.S. bank's control.

However, the Paris-headquartered lender would still look for the right opportunities to take a stake in a Chinese bank or to work out a business-cooperation plan, said Sefrin, who has worked for Societe Generale for more than 20 years in various locations.

"Definitely this kind of development, external growth, is something we've been looking at and will continue to look at," he said.

"If we see value and relevance in moving forward first with cooperation projects, we will do that and we will move on to the next stage later."

The launch of retail banking services in China is Societe Generale's first such foray in Asia, where it has traditionally focused on other areas of its business, including corporate and investment banking and asset management.

"We're moving now into Asia. Asia is now definitely on the map for retail banking activities -- beyond retail, universal banking activities," said Sefrin.

In China, major clients of Societe Generale are big Chinese state-owned enterprises, multinational corporations with operations in the country and financial institutions.

"In the corporate and investment banking areas, we're very focused on structured financing, derivative risk management, and this is the pillar of our activity," he said.

Societe Generale's rivals, including Citigroup, HSBC Holdings Plc and BNP Paribas, have also set up China units in an effort to lure the fast growing segment of Chinese middle-class financial consumers, a potential source of profit for many global banks amid the global economic downturn.

In 2003, Societe Generale and China's biggest steel maker, Baosteel Group, launched a joint venture called Fortune SGAM, making it China's second foreign-invested fund venture, in which Societe Generale holds a 49 percent stake.

"We have a good and reasonable expansion plan. It's a step-by-step approach," he added.

($1=6.832 Yuan)

(Additional reporting by Pily Zou and Edmund Klamann; Editing by Ken Wills)