- France: according to Fusions & Acquisitions Magazine, the wave of mergers and acquisitions involving at least one French company reached a record in 1999 with four operations achieving over FF 100 bn: the takeover of TOTAL-FINA of ELF, the friendly takeover of HOECHST by RHONE-POULENC, BNP's purchase of PARIBAS and the merger between CARREFOURS and PROMEDES. To these mega-mergers may be added another eleven operations of between FF 20 and 100 bn, mostly through payments in stocks given the amount of the sums at stake, and one operation still ongoing, ALCAN's bid for PICHNEY-ALGROUP. An exceptional situation compared to 1998 when there was only one transaction of over FF 50 bn with ALLIANZ's takeover of AGF. Other characteristic: the wave of mergers-acquisitions is resolutely trans-national: out of 18 operations of over FF 10 bn involving French companies and actually realised last year, twelve were with foreign companies, with the latter being either the acquirer or target, with intra-European transactions being the most numerous (7 operations). Confirming the world trend (see yesterday's EI), 1999 was also the year of hostile bids.