BNP Paribas steps in to end ‘war of widows’

PARIS: France’s biggest bank has stepped in to resolve a “war of widows” dividing the controlling families at luxury Paris store chain Galeries Lafayette, backing a 3bil euro (US$3.9bil) deal to take it private. 

BNP Paribas, also aiming to prevent a rival from seizing the chain’s profitable finance arm, said on Tuesday it would buy out one of the founding families, the Meyers, and join the opposing clan, the Moulins, in bidding for the rest of the shares in Galeries Lafayette.