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发帖数: 978 | 1 Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Agricole SA, France’s second-
largest bank by assets, will report a loss for 2011 and
eliminate 2,350 jobs at its investment-banking and consumer-
finance units as Europe’s debt crisis erodes economic growth.
Credit Agricole, based outside Paris, will book about 2.5
billion euros ($3.24 billion) in fourth-quarter writedowns on
investments, including stakes in Spain’s Bankinter SA and Banco
Espirito Santo SA of Portugal, it said in a statement yesterday.
“The losses are enormous,” said Jacques-Pascal Porta, who
helps manage about 500 million euros at Ofi Gestion Privee in
Paris. “This is worse, much worse than anything you might have
expected.”
The bank scrapped a dividend for 2011 and said it can’t
confirm its 2014 goals because of “the lack of visibility on
the economic and financial climate.” Credit Agricole joins
Paris-based competitors BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale SA
in reducing corporate- and investment-banking staff as Europe’s
sovereign-debt crisis escalates and regulators demand higher
capital ratios.
The average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg
was for 2011 net income of 2.2 billion euros at Credit Agricole.
The company has posted annual profits every year since its 2001
stock exchange listing.
Credit Agricole dropped as much as 4.7 percent in Paris
trading, and was down 6.4 cents, or 1.5 percent, to 4.16 euros
at 12:20 p.m. The stock has fallen 56 percent this year.
‘Surprises in Store’
Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Chifflet was counting on
a rebound at Credit Agricole’s international retail-banking
business to attain a 2014 profit goal of 6 billion euros to 7
billion euros. Credit Agricole was alone among France’s four
largest banks in passing European stress tests with no need for
further capital. Credit Agricole Group plans to reach a common
equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 10 percent under Basel III rules
at the end of 2013, it said yesterday.
“The future could still have surprises in store,”
Chifflet said on a conference call with reporters. “Credit
Agricole group wants to be solid.”
Credit Agricole is following Italy’s UniCredit SpA in
writing down the value of investments. UniCredit last month
posted a 10.6 billion-euro third-quarter loss after marking down
years of acquisitions and said it will close its western
European brokerage to rein in costs.
Fitch Cut
Credit Agricole said on Sept. 28 that it planned to reduce
financing needs by as much as 52 billion euros, including
between 15 billion euros and 18 billion euros at its corporate-
and investment-banking unit.
Fitch Ratings yesterday downgraded Credit Agricole’s long-
term issuer default rating to A+ from AA- as it cut credit
grades on four other European lenders by one level, citing
“stronger headwinds facing the banking industry.” Credit
Agricole has “only adequate capital ratios compared with highly
rated peers,” Fitch said.
To reach the group’s end-2013 Basel III capital goal,
Credit Agricole’s listed company will cut its risk-weighted
assets by 60 billion euros, reducing the use of capital for the
equity-derivatives and corporate-financing businesses.
Credit Agricole’s corporate and investment bank will close
operations in 21 countries, remaining active in 32, while
stopping its equity-derivatives activities.
The bank is shedding about 1,750 positions at the corporate
and investment bank, including 550 in France, it said, without
giving a further breakdown. The firm, which is also eliminating
600 consumer-finance positions, isn’t planning job cuts at
asset-management unit Amundi or elsewhere, Chifflet said.
‘Plain Vanilla’
Credit Agricole will have about 500 million euros of
fourth-quarter net losses stemming from disposing of portfolios
and “provisions set aside for all job adjustment measures,” it
said. For 2012, the bank said it expects 470 million euros of
net losses from asset disposals.
The scaling down of Credit Agricole’s investment-banking
business is a “desirable outcome,” said Robin Down and
Lorraine Quoirez, London-based analysts at HSBC holdings Plc, in
a note to investors today. “In three-four years time, the
business will be increasingly a plain vanilla European retail
banking operation with an asset-management business layered on
top.”
Chief Financial Officer Bernard Delpit declined to estimate
Credit Agricole’s fourth-quarter loss. The bank had net income
of 1.6 billion euros in the nine months through September, up
0.4 percent from a year earlier, it said Nov. 10.
Credit Downgrade
Moody’s Investors Service cut the credit ratings of Credit
Agricole, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale last week, citing
funding constraints and deteriorating economic conditions amid
Europe’s two-year-old debt crisis. Moody’s lowered the long-term
debt ratings of Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas by one level to
Aa3, the fourth-highest investment grade.
Credit Agricole is making “enhanced efforts to boost
deposits” at its unprofitable Athens-based retail-banking unit,
Emporiki Bank of Greece SA, it said.
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发帖数: 2401 | | D********n
发帖数: 978 | 3 Com'on, it is a French bank closing equity derivatives business.
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