"We have remained true to our core mission as stated in 1864"
Didier Valet Head of Corporate & Investment Banking, Private Banking, Asset Management and Securities Services
Since 1864, Societe Generale’s development has accompanied changing economic cycles and the industrial and technological revolutions that have shaped our world and the globalisation of commerce. During these 150 years we have changed and grown without ever losing sight of our main mission: to serve our clients and support the development of trade and industry. We remain a bank founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.
Some of the projects we helped finance are now part of history: the construction of the Eiffel Tower and the Suez Canal, for example, or the creation of the first Parisian Metro lines. Today, our clients are large industrial, pharmaceutical or food industry groups, service companies, leading financial institutions, local authorities or nation states. Our expertise as bankers is built on long-term relationships, know-how and technical skills combined with in-depth sectoral knowledge and financial product engineering capabilities which enable us to offer tailored solutions to meet our clients’ specific needs.
"Clients expect us to know how to adapt to the changes underway in their industry."
These needs are continually changing, with growing levels of sophistication and an ever
increasing international dimension. Our teams accompany these ongoing changes across the whole spectrum of our corporate and investment banking activities. In particular, we play an important role as an intermediary between borrowers - notably businesses - and investors, thus facilitating the financing of their respective projects.
In terms of financing, the range of solutions we offer our clients is very wide. Working alongside them, we look at all the available solutions for a given project, acquisition or more generally to meet their operating or investment requirements. Possible solutions are often multi-faceted, from bilateral credit lines to acquisitions, project or infrastructure financing, or bond market issuance where we can put in place specific structures (project bonds, high yield, private placement, etc). These solutions can be combined to provide our clients with maximum flexibility, while enabling them to diversify their sources of financing.
The private sector is not the only one to benefit from this expertise, as we also work closely with the public sector. Our bank is closely involved in public-private partnerships (PPP) associating economic players (manufacturers, building contractors, etc.) to help meet the needs of nation states or public authorities. This was recently the case with the renovation of a property portfolio of twelve French universities and several schools in the greater Paris region.
Having access to the full range of available financing options is essential for them and also enables us to offer long-term support for economic growth and international trade development.
Our presence alongside the leading players in the global economy has never faltered, even in times of crisis. We have remained true to our core mission as stated in 1864: "support the development of trade and industry". Today we are still building on this heritage which remains at the heart of our priorities as we help shape the world of tomorrow.