Credit Agricole reported a steeper-than-expected 2.85 billion-euro ($3.63 billion) quarterly loss on Friday as the French bank was slammed by its exit from Greece and a series of other write-downs. Stripping out one-off factors - which also included the sale of its Cheuvreux brokerage and a write-down on its stake in Spain's Bankinter as well as losses on its own debt - the bank had 716 million euros in "normalised" net income, short of the 786 million Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S average estimate.
Credit Agricole, which reported a net profit of 258 million euros in the year-ago quarter, did not provide a comparison for the normalised figure. The write-downs, plus profit declines in French retail, Italy and investment banking, are a sign that Credit Agricole's recent move to sell its Greek Emporiki unit was not a panacea for the bank, which faces questions from some investors about its ability to comply with tougher Basel III solvency rules.
Revenue slid 32 percent to 3.43 billion euros, lagging a 4.17 billion average estimate. The lender, majority controlled by a network of regional co-operative banks, said the Emporiki sale bolstered its capital, increasing its Core Tier 1 ratio to 9.8 percent on a proforma basis. But it did not provide an estimate of capital according to tougher Basel III standards.
The bank's French retail unit, usually a strong point, saw profit decline 3.5 percent at its regional banks and 11 percent at its LCL unit. Profit at its Italian Cariparma unit plunged 44.5 percent. Elsewhere in Italy, the bank took a 572 million-euro charge to write down goodwill for its Agos consumer credit unit. Investment banking, an area of strength at many banks this quarter, saw a 15 percent drop on an adjusted basis as Credit Agricole continued to cut back the unit's operations.
Comments
Comments are closed.