The French bank BNP-PARIBAS is to take control on the German on-line broker CONSORS by buying 66.40 of the capital held by the regional bank SCHMIDTBANK for 287 million euro, or 9.08 euro a share. The operation will be followed by a public bid for the reminder of the shares at a unit price of 12.4 euro, BNP-PARIBAS having the intention of merging CONSORS with its subsidiary CORTAL, so as to create the foremost European player on on-line savings, with 1.2 million customers and 14 bn euro in assets under its management. The total cost of the operation should be some 485 million for the French group.