SocGen: time is costly

The Hamlet number can only last so long. BNP-Paribas, France’s largest bank, is still wavering about making a bid for its troubled rival Société Générale and is openly trying to dampen expectations it will do so. There are signs that BNP’s non-executive chairman Michel Pebereau and chief executive Baudouin Prot aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on the matter, and the board is reportedly split. But the bank’s talking down of bid rumours seems mostly to be an effort to keep SocGen’s share price from gettin...