* Centrica to buy 20 pct stake in British Energy from EDF * EDF to take Centrica's 51 percent stake in Belgian SPE * Centrica to take part in new British nuclear build * Centrica shares up 5.7 percent, EDF stock down 5.8 percent(Adds EDF CEO comment, advisers, updates shares) By John Bowker and Sudip Kar-Gupta LONDON/PARIS, May 11 (Reuters) - State-owned French powergroup EDF (EDF.PA) is to sell 20 percent of its British nuclearunit to British Gas owner Centrica (CNA.L), gaining the 'Made inBritain' stamp seen as key to building new reactors there. Forprevious columns, Reuters' customers can click on [SMITH/] -- (Editing by David Evans) Stocks Global Markets Russia Japan. -- At the time of publication Alexander Smith did not ownany direct investments in securities mentioned in this article.He may be an owner indirectly as an investor in a fund. The London operations are likely to focus on fixed income,foreign exchange and derivatives.
If the name lives on at all,it will only be through the private banking business, which maybe sold either to a trade buyer or to management. Commerzbank is finally doing the right thing for KleinwortBenson After all, the alternatives have all been exhausted. Nomura (8604.T) andEvolution (EVG.L), a mid-sized UK securities firm, have justhired teams from Kleinwort [nLB648290] [nLB49944]. Little is likely to survive of the original Kleinwortoperation. Most of the senior management team has left,including Jentzsch, and the most able employees are likely todesert There are still takers around. When the merger took place,Kleinwort boss Stefan Jentzsch set aside 400 million euros ($544million) in retention bonuses to keep the business together.
When Commerzbank cancelled most of these in February, thedie was cast. Prior to its merger with Commerzbank, Dresdner franticallylooked for a buyer for the Kleinwort operation, and a Chinese orRussian solution was talked about. One consequence of Kleinwort having explored the options soexhaustively over a number of years is that almost everythingexcept dismantlement had been ruled out. Berlin now owns 25 percent and has little appetite forexpensive investment banking activities abroad. Commerzbank'sLondon presence is being cut back to what is needed to supportthe international activities of German companies. The bank has made huge losses asa result of structured credit and real estate lending and wasforced last autumn to turn to the German government for help.
Commerzbank has been able to resist this pickle because itcannot afford to do otherwise. Various spurious rationale were concocted to justifythis -- including the need for Dresdner's parent, Allianz(ALVG.DE), to have access to complex securitisation markets. But it was never clear why Kleinwort needed to be in the UKequities business, where it was a small and increasinglyirrelevant presence. The Dresdner name is being dropped andthe historic Kleinwort one is likely to follow. Dresdner got into a muddle because it could never quite giveup on the idea of having a glamorous presence in the City ofLondon.
Having takencontrol, it has already moved to close most of Kleinwort'sLondon equities operations, and the whole of its Japanesepresence. Around a third of the 3,600 London employees of thecombined firm are going. The German bank first expanded the unit, buying an expensiveU.S. boutique, then mulled the idea of merging it with anotherbank, and finally contemplated spinning it off to management.But all these plans came to nothing Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) has been more decisive. -- Alexander Smith is a Reuters columnist. The opinionsexpressed are his own -- Stocks | Global Markets | Russia | Japan By Alexander Smith LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - Dresdner Bank DRSDgd.F spent 15years tinkering with the investment banking operations ofKleinwort Benson, the UK merchant bank it bought in 1995.