Written by Sudip Kalu Gupta
PARIS (Reuters) – France says Morgan Stanley will open a new European office in Paris, while two other companies prepare to host a joint annual foreign investment summit. announced an investment worth 100 million euros ($753.8 million).
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Sunday that Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley's new office, called the “European Campus”, will create an additional 100 jobs.
He added that German airline Lilium will invest 400 million euros in the factory, while Swiss-based company KL1 will invest 300 million euros in the nickel smelter. These two investments, combined, could create more than 1,000 jobs.
Le Maire spoke as President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to host “Choose France,” an annual event aimed at attracting major foreign companies and investors, on Monday.
The incident comes as France, the eurozone's second-largest economy, faces concerns about its budget deficit as the country grew by just 0.2% in the first quarter.
Le Maire said France and the European Union as a whole needed to do more to counter competition from China and the United States.
He said the European Union meeting in Brussels this week would reaffirm the need for a capital markets union to boost investment in new areas of the economy, such as renewable energy and artificial intelligence.
“New industries and new economies require large amounts of capital. We need to take urgent concrete steps to get the Capital Markets Union back on track. I would like to reiterate this: “I will be able to go to Brussels early this week for the Capital Markets Union,” he told reporters.
“Europe needs money, otherwise it will continue to lose out to the US and China in terms of productivity.”
President Macron wants to further refine Paris' role as Europe's largest business center.
The high-profile Z/yen survey of global financial centers released in March named New York the world's top financial hub, with Paris ranking 14th behind Frankfurt.
And last month, French oil giant Total Energies announced it was considering a major stock listing in New York.
Le Maire met with the chief executives of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America on Monday as part of the “Choose France” event, which attracted 13 billion euros in foreign investment last year. He said he would host a meeting. others.
“These roundtables will give us the opportunity to re-engage major financial investors and ensure that they continue to set up base in Paris and finance the major industrial and economic projects that we are working with the President on. Deaf,” Lemaire said. .
(1 dollar = 0.9286 euro)
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Clelia Oziel)
