Compagnie Algérienne
The Société Générale Algérienne (SGA) was created in Paris on 18 May 1865, at a time of ambitious outward-oriented French business initiatives such as the Suez Company (est.
[1]: 211 The company’s head office was established at 11-13, rue des Capucines in Paris, adjacent to the Crédit Foncier's own headquarters complex.
The SGA subsequently acquired vast landholdings and lent to finance mining, infrastructure and land development projects in Algeria, funded mainly by bond issuance.
This dynamic expansion resulted in financial overstretch during the downturn of the mid-1870s, which also severely impacted Crédit Foncier, the SGA's main sponsor together with Société Générale.
It expanded the SGA's previous commercial banking operations and opened new branches between 1878 and 1906 in Blida, Bougie, Mascara, Médéa, Sétif, Sidi Bel Abbès, and Souk Ahras.[1]: 216 .
By 1920, its Algerian branch network extended to Affreville (now Khemis Miliana), Aïn Beïda, Aïn Témouchent, Algiers, Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane), Batna, Blida, Boghari, Bône (now Annaba), Bordj Bou Arréridj, Bordj Bouira, Bordj Menaïel, Boufarik, Bougie, Colea, Constantine, Djidjelli, Guelma, Jemmapes (now Azzaba), Khenchela, Maison-Carrée (now El Harrach), Marengo (now Hadjout), Mascara, Médéa, Mostaganem, Orléansville (now Chlef), Palikao (now Tighennif), Philippeville (now Skikda), Relizane, Rio-Salado (now El Malah), Saïda, Saint-Arnaud (now El Eulma), Saint-Denis-de-Sig, Sétif, Sidi Bel Abbès, Soukahra, Tiaret, Tlemcen, and Vialar (now Tissemsilt).
[3] The Compagnie soon expanded in the newly established French protectorate of Tunisia, with a branch in Tunis as early as 1881, followed by Sfax, Bizerte, and Sousse, then Béja and Mateur in 1909, and Gabès, Kairouan and Souk El Arba (now Jendouba) in 1910.
In the early 1910s it complemented its long-established presence in Marseille with branches on the French Riviera in Antibes, Cannes, Menton, Nice, and Vence,[1]: 217 as well as Vichy.
[3] This expansion mirrored the rapid increase in the Compagnie's balance sheet and volume of operations in the first decades of the 20th century, in contrast to its comparatively slow development in the 1880s and 1890s.
