The Société générale de Belgique (Dutch: Generale Maatschappij van België; literally "General Company of Belgium") was a large Belgian bank and later holdings company which existed between 1822 and 2003. Various elements of the company, including its banking wing, were split off over the course of its existence. In the 1980s, Suez begun to buy up the company's shares and, in 1998, the Société générale was taken over by Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. It ceased to exist in 2003 when it was merged with Tractebel to form Suez-Tractebel.