BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, said it expects a ''stable'' impact on its capital from the revised agreement to purchase banking and insurance assets from Belgium's Fortis Bank. ''BNP Paribas group's Tier 1 ratio should remain stable on the day the transaction closes,'' the Paris-based bank said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. The operation will probably increase earnings by 2010 excluding integration costs, it said.

Total deposits of the combined bank are above 540 billion euros ($683 billion), BNP Paribas said. Total deposits of the combination were 586 billion euros at the end of 2007, the French bank said on 6 October, when it announced the original purchase plan.

On Saturday, the Belgian government and BNP Paribas agreed on revised terms for the break-up of Fortis. The transaction now has to be approved by Fortis shareholders, who had rejected earlier terms on a Fortis break-up, with the debacle leading to the collapse of the previous Belgian government.

Belgium will give BNP Paribas 75 per cent of Fortis Bank in a deal valuing the whole of Fortis Bank at 11 billion euros ($13.9 billion). In exchange, Belgium will get BNP Paribas shares, issued at 68 euros. This would provide Fortis with an 11.4 per cent stake in BNP Paribas.

However, under the new agreement, BNP Paribas will now look to purchase 25 per cent of Fortis' insurance business, Fortis Holding, up from the 10 per cent previously, for 1.38 billion euros.

Furthermore, BNP Paribas will pay 200 euros million into a shell company to hold Fortis' risky assets and bad loans. For its part, Fortis will pay 760 euros million to the company, while the Belgian government is to contribute 740 million euros, as well as guarantee up to 1.5 billion euros on losses of more than 3.5 billion euros on current Fortis loans.

Buying the Fortis assets would make BNP Paribas the eurozone's leading bank in terms of deposits, with roughly the same ranking as rival ING.

BNP said that with the Fortis assets, it would have a deposit base of more than 540 billion euros and a loan to deposit ratio of 120 per cent.

Last month, BNP Paribas said its Tier 1 ratio would go up to 8.4 per cent from 7.8 percent with a second round of French state aid for the country's banks. BNP reported a fourth quarter net loss of 1.37 billion euros in February.

On Monday morning, Fortis shares jumped 20 per cent after the news.

The Belgian-Dutch financial services group was broken up last October as the global financial crisis undermined investor confidence. The Dutch state took over its Dutch assets and Belgium the Belgian banking assets.

The dismantling of Fortis stripped the publicly traded holding company of its main assets, prompting shareholders to launch court action as their shares became next to worthless.

In December, a Brussels appeal court backed their legal challenge, ruling that the minority shareholders should have been consulted first, and appointing a panel to review the operation.

Last month, Fortis shareholders rejected by a slim majority the sale to BNP Paribas as well as the nationalisation of its assets in the Netherlands.