Banque de l'Union Parisienne
| Industry | Investment banking |
|---|---|
| Founded | Paris, France (5 January 1904) |
| Defunct | 1973 |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
The Banque de l'Union Parisienne (BUP) was a French investment bank.
The bank had its origins in the Banque Parisienne, founded in 1874 and mainly engaged in discounting commercial paper. In the financial and economic crisis of the late 1880s the Banque Parisienne ran into liquidity problems, which were resolved by an injection of cash from the Société Générale de Belgique. With this new partner, the Banque Parisienne moved into the business of launching and trading securities for French companies, mostly based in Paris, for companies in countries such as Portugal and China, and for governments. The business proved profitable, but the company lacked the capital needed for faster growth. The Société Générale de Belgique arranged with a number of private Parisian banks to establish a new institution, the Banque de l'Union Parisienne. The new investors were Hottinguer, Mirabaud, Neuflize, Mallet and Vernes. It was expected that the new bank would soon become the second French investment bank after the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, and that it would represent the interests of Schneider-Creusot.
The Banque de l'Union Parisienne was founded on 5 January 1904, with initial capital of 40 million francs. Société Générale de Belgique held 15%. The house of Demachy later took a share of the capital, which steadily grew to 200 million francs by 1929. The institution was mainly owned by French and foreign banks, with few individual shareholders, but there were a few institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.
Baron Ferdinand Baeyens, governor on the Société Générale, was administrator of the BUP from 1904 until his retirement in October 1913, when Jean Jadot assumed both positions. The bank grew rapidly and profitably in the years following its foundation, with successive expansions of its capital base. It survived a financial crisis in 1907 and an economic crisis in 1913, a year in which its capital was raised to 80 million francs.
The Banque de l'Union Parisienne invested in a wide range of enterprises in France. It helped with the launch and expansion of Messageries Maritimes (shipping), Ericsson (telephones), De Dion-Bouton (cars), and so on. The BUP would lend capital as required for growth, recovering it through sales of shares when the market was strong. Typically the BUP would have a presence on the board of the enterprise. The bank became closely involved with the industrial giant Schneider, helping financing in Russia, Morocco, and other countries. Some of the Schneider enterprises ran into difficulties, and from 1927 relations with the bank were strained, with a final break in 1929.
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