SG buys $1.3 billion Japan CDS portfolio

French bank strengthens position in Asia

Societe Generale bought a $1.3 billion book of Japanese credit default swaps (CDS) from an unnamed global bank last year, continuing a series of credit derivatives portfolio acquisitions by the French bank.

Sources close to the deal, which took place just before August last year, say the book consisted of 52 Japanese names spread across roughly 350 contracts. Maturities of the contracts ranged between one and five years – fairly typical for Asian CDS, which tend to be of shorter duration than