The last great chapter of Etienne Davignon’s life was written in the world of business.
In 1985, he joined the Société Générale de Belgique. He chaired it from 1988 to 2001. This company, created even before the independence of Belgium, became over the decades a powerful holding company which, during its existence, was active in the economic history of Belgium and controlled banking activities, but also industrial ones, for example.
The rise in power of Etienne Davignon within the Société Générale de Belgique comes at a time when the latter is the subject of a takeover bid, a public purchase offer, launched by an Italian, Carlo De Benedetti, a boss whose reputation as a business turnaround frightens. In Belgium, there is turmoil in fight to save the Old Lady that is Société Générale.
At the time, Etienne Davignon was an important Belgian businessman. He sat on numerous boards of directors. His address book probably allowed him to ward off De Benedetti’s maneuver.
The rescue of the Societe Generale will involve a deal and cross-shareholdings in particular with the GBL group of the Belgian Albert Frère. This gains strength in Petrofina and in Tractebel, later allowing the French group Suez to take control of the electrical activities of the Societe Generale de Belgique. Tractebel, Electrabel (which later became Engie) will become flagships of the Suez group.
Accused by some of having sold part of the Belgian economy abroad, Etienne Davignon defended himself.Does this cause job losses in Belgium? Did we pay less taxes? Has this affected the normal economic situation in Belgium? On these questions, the answer is no. The companies are still there, a certain number have developed very well, and the examples are there, Umicore, CMB, etc. So it didn’t have a negative impactf”, he estimated in 2019.
In 2001-2002, Etienne Davignon was called to the rescue after the bankruptcy of Sabena, the Belgian national airline. Accompanied by businessman Maurice Lippens, boss of Fortis, Etienne Davignon sets up a project to save what can be of the old airline. They raised funds to launch “SN Brussels Airlines”, which today became “Brussels Airlines”.
One of Viscount Davignon’s last major outings on the business scene was also a failure. In 2008, when the Fortis bank of his friend Maurice Lippens was in the midst of a financial collapse and had to be saved by the State, the name of Etienne Davignon was proposed to take over the presidency of what remained of the Fortis group, mainly the activities insurance companies. At the general meeting, at Heysel, the small shareholders go wild. “You sold Société Générale, you sold Electrabel and now you are selling Fortis. You are sold to the French“, a shareholder criticizes him in front of the television cameras. Under the boos, Etienne Davignon will not obtain the presidency of Fortis.
Since 2004, Etienne Davignon has also been Minister of State. And since 2017, the viscount has been elevated to the rank of count.
