SocGen sees near 100 pct rights take-up

By Daisy Ku and Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) will have a take-up rate of close to 100 percent for its deeply discounted 5.5 billion euros (4.2 billion pounds) rights issue, sources close to the deal said on Friday.

The one-for-four rights issue at 47.50 euros per share, to shore up its finances after $7 billion (3.52 billion pounds) of losses it blamed on rogue trading, closes on Friday night.

"Everybody is confident the take-up rate here is going to be, if not 100 percent, is going to be pretty close to," said one of the sources.

SocGen shares close 1.14 percent higher at 71.10 euros, up 9.4 percent from February 21, when the rights issue started. SocGen rights SOGN_r.PA closed at 5.79 euros each, up 41.2 percent from 4.10 euros on February 21.

Institutional investors had said they were keen to subscribe to the new SocGen shares, given the deep discount.

Key shareholders including Groupama and French insurer CNP (CNPP.PA), which hold around 3 percent and 1.1 percent of the bank's share capital respectively, have said they would take part in the rights issue.

French fund management company Montsegur Finance said it had signed up, and Montsegur Finance fund manager Gregory Moore said he had heard that the rights issue was going well.

"It's going fairly well, thanks to the bid rumours which mean that everyone wants to buy the stock," he said.