Commercial synergies
On 2 April 2003, BELGOLAISE and BGFIBANK ( portrait ) signed a commercial and technical cooperation agreement which establishes a general framework for the development of preferential relations between the Belgian bank and the Gabonese bank.

This contract does not follow the lines of the standard technical assistance contracts, but provides for a new form of bilateral cooperation through which BGFIBANK and BELGOLAISE open their complementary networks to one another to develop commercial synergies and to enable their customers to benefit from the cover of key services at both African and international levels, notably through the Fortis Bank establishments.

This agreement also provides for the possibility for BGFIBANK to call on the operational know-how of BELGOLAISE, as and where needed. To recap, BGFIBANK, a private undertaking with 100% Gabonese capital, is present in three CEMAC countries where BELGOLAISE does not possess any holdings: Gabon, Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) and Equatorial Guinea. In the space of a few years, BGFIBANK has become the leading Gabonese financial group, with total assets having tripled in the past 4 years to 365 billion CFA francs (EUR 556 million) at 31 December 2002.