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(Bloomberg) — Morgan Stanley plans to add 100 staff to a research team in its Paris hub, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said as he unveiled several new foreign investments in France.
President Emmanuel Macron will host dozens of international CEOs, including finance executives, in the Château de Versailles on Monday for the “Choose France” summit. The flagship event is part of a push by Macron’s government to re-industrialize the country and make it a financial hub for the European Union post-Brexit.
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Morgan Stanley will open its new European campus in the French capital, featuring a global research hub, Le Maire said. The US bank already increased its Paris headcount to about 400 staff from 150 since 2021.
First Abu Dhabi Bank and Nigeria’s Zenith Bank are also set to open offices in Paris, the minister added. Those operations will help French companies invest in the Gulf and in English-speaking Africa, and show that Paris is becoming a key location for worldwide players, according to Le Maire.
Other investments previewed by LeMaire include two factories to help make France a “decarbonized industry” leader. Swiss-based KL1 is set to invest €300 million ($324 million) in a nickel refining plant with 200 employees in Blanquefort, near Bordeaux. The metal is a key component of batteries for electric vehicles.
The German start-up Lilium will build a €400 million factory assembling vertical take-off electrical jets in the southwest of France, creating up to 850 jobs, Le Maire said.
More projects are expected to be announced by Macron on Monday. In 2023, about €13 billion ($14 billion) in foreign investments were announced at the Choose France summit.
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About €3 billion of tech and AI related projects are set to be unveiled, les Echos reported on Thursday, with new data centers to be built by Amazon, KDDI and Equinix.
Read more: Macron’s ‘Choose France’ Hits Some Turbulence: Paris Edition
Paris in recent years has grown as a financial center, attracting banks and hedge funds that sought a foothold in the EU following Brexit. The UK’s 2016 vote to leave the EU forced Wall Street’s biggest banks to adjust operations to ensure they were trading European assets — from government bonds to interest rate products to equities — within the 27 countries that remain in the bloc.
France is often criticized for its tight labor laws, regulation, and political pressure on companies, and is working on a new plan to bolster the attractiveness of Paris as a European financial center. Those moves have spurred additional firms from Asia, the Middle East, Canada and Australia to contemplate moving business to Paris.
Le Maire on Monday will host a lunch with top bankers, with guests to include JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, KKR co-founder Henry Kravis, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan.
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