Bouton said in a newspaper interview published on Monday that his resignation was "no longer on the table."
PARIS (Reuters) - Daniel Bouton, the head of French bank Societe Generale <SOGN.PA>, said on Monday he would continue to lead the bank despite having offered his resignation twice following record losses due to a trading scandal.
Bouton said in a newspaper interview published on Monday that his resignation was "no longer on the table."
"I stay, I am the pilot, I drive on," Bouton told the Les Echos daily in an interview.
Asked if he would look at a friendly offer to link up with another bank, he said: "I do not comment on the likelihood of an hostile offer."
!ADVERTISEMENT!"I do not comment on the likelihood of a friendly linkup with a foreign bank, or a French bank, or a state-owned bank. It is not to me to feed the speculation, today no more than yesterday," he added.
On January 24, SocGen announced 4.9 billion euros ($7.26 billion) of losses which it said were due to rogue trades carried out by Jerome Kerviel, a 31-year old trader at the bank.
To repair its finances, SocGen has launched a fully underwritten 5.5 billion euro rights issue. The price of the new shares in the rights issue is 47.50 euros - a steep discount to the bank's recent share price.
Bouton said the roadshows promoting the rights issue in the United States and in Europe made him "confident" of its outcome, which he said will be known on March 11.
Societe Generale on Thursday confirmed a record fourth-quarter loss after the trading scandal that has made France's second-biggest listed bank a potential takeover target.
The 3.35 billion euro quarterly loss coincided with an internal report acknowledging that better systems might have prevented the costly stock market gambles it blames on Kerviel.
SocGen, like many of the world's top banks, has also been hit by losses related to a global credit crunch and the bank has warned it may make further writedowns.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Erica Billingham)
