Credit Agricole SA, the listed arm of the French banking group Credit Agricole, posted Tuesday a two-thirds cut in its second-quarter net profit owing to problems in Greece and Italy. Credit Agricole said profit fell by 67.4 percent to 111 million euros ($139 million), after taking charges of 427 million euros in connection with the value of its shares in the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo.
Another charge of 370 million euros was booked in relation to the Greek bank Emporiki, a unit that the French parent company is trying to sell. Credit Agricole chief executive Jean-Paul Chifflet said: "We are looking at the three binding offers we have received." He added: "No final decision has been taken yet as discussions with the Bank of Greece, the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund and the European Commission on the conditions in which the transaction could take place, are still on." However Chifflet said that hoped that a deal could be struck within several weeks. "If we sign a deal in several weeks from now, could we complete the closing by the end of the year? That is what we hope," he said during a conference call.
Credit Agricole bought Emporiki in 2006, but the Greek unit has weighed heavily on earnings since then, and it has proven hard to sell. The French bank said that in the three months from April through June, its gross operating profit fell by 32.8 percent and that its net banking income was down by 14.1 percent to 4.75 billion euros.
Credit Agricole SA's core Tier 1 ratio of high-quality capital to overall assets stood at 9.6 percent at the end of June. Shares in the French bank closed down 0.37 percent to 4.27 euros on the Paris stock exchange, while the CAC 40 index of French bluechips lost 0.90 percent overall.
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