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BNP suffers 1.366-bln-euro 4th qtr loss
2009-02-19
PARIS (AFP) - French banking giant BNP Paribas said Thursday it sustained 1.366-billion-euro (1.7-billion-dollar) fourth quarter loss and a 61.5 percent slide in annual net earnings last year. The results -- which come amid uncertainty over BNP's bid to take over the Belgian assets of Fortis bank -- were in line with expectations, with much of the setback coming in the fourth quarter as the financial crisis bit. Full-year 2008 profit fell to 3.0 billion euros from a record 7.8 billion in 2007. In a statement, BNP said its financing and investment unit lost two billion euros after being hit by the collapse of US merchant bank Lehman Brothers in September. Revenues throughout 2008 totalled 27.376 billion euros, a drop of 11.8 percent that was cushioned by retail banking and asset management operations. The bank said its provisions for risky loans tripled last year to a record 5.752 billion euros, which it attributed to a "deterioration in the economic climate in the United States, Spain and Ukraine" as well as to the deepening global financial crisis. BNP is poised to take over the Belgian operations of Fortis bank from the Belgian state, but the plan is challenged by Fortis shareholders -- leaving the French bank to warn that it might abandon the move. On Wednesday, rival French bank Societe Generale reported a net profit of 2.0 billion euros for 2008 despite the financial crisis, with net earnings in the third quarter at 87 million euros.
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