Natixis in talks with Dexia, others on stake: paper

PARIS (Reuters) - French investment bank Natixis (CNAT.PA), finalizing a rights issue to repair damage from the credit crisis, is in talks with Dexia (DEXI.BR) and other banks about them taking a stake, the Les Echos paper said on Tuesday.

"Somebody who would be willing to take a significant stake, preferably a European bank capable of bringing business to Natixis, rather than a sleeping partner like a sovereign fund, but nothing is excluded," the paper quoted a source close to Natixis' two big shareholders as saying. These are mutal Banques Populaires and Caisse d'Epargne which own a combined 70 percent.

A spokeswoman for Natixis had no comment on the report and at Dexia there was no immediate comment.

Natixis shares jumped 20 percent at one stage on Monday with traders citing speculation of short-covering in the stock and rumors of interest from a sovereign wealth fund in the French bank.

It was the biggest ever one-day percentage jump in France's fourth-biggest listed bank, which has been among the worst hit by the global credit crisis.

Last month, Natixis said it would launch a 3.7 billion euro ($5.56 billion) rights issue to bolster its finances after booking a new writedown of 1.5 billion euros from the global credit crisis.

Natixis is due to publish second quarter results in the last week of August, when it is also likely to give more details about the rights issue and hold a shareholders' meeting to approve the capital increase.

(Reporting by Marcel Michelson and Blaise Robinson; Editing by Victoria Bryan)