Belgium has been walked over once – by Germany – in the last 50 years, and doesn’t intend to have it happen again from the other half of the Axis: Carlo de Benedetti comes very close to being Italy SpA these days, while Societe Generale de Belgique is very definitely Belgium SA, with fingers in almost every pie of Belgian industry and commerce – and 5% of Alcatel NV, and the revelation that de Benedetti’s Paris-based Cerus SA has built up an 18.6% stake in the Belgian giant and wants 33% and effective control, has galvanised the entire country to see off the raider; first line of defence is to increase its capital 60% by selling shares to the firms in which it has stakes.
