BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley are to lead the €7bn ($8.4bn) Paris flotation of French electrical retailer Legrand. The listing is scheduled for the first half of next year.

Banking sources told Financial News today that Legrand appointed the banks over the weekend, narrowing the field from a shortlist of 10 banks, which included Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Société Générale and UBS.