“Credit Agricole SA, France’s third- largest bank by market value, reported a record fourth-quarter loss after writing down goodwill at its Italian and investment- banking businesses.
The net loss widened 30 percent from a year earlier to 3.98 billion euros ($5.3 billion), the bank, based outside Paris, said in a statement today. The loss exceeded the 3.69 billion- euro average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Credit Agricole took 2.67 billion euros in goodwill writedowns in the quarter to reflect stricter accounting rules and a worsening economy, and booked a 706 million-euro additional loss on the sale of its Greek unit Emporiki, a deal completed this month. The French bank has plans for job cuts at its Italian consumer-banking unit and cost-cutting at the investment bank.
“We’ve deeply transformed our group,” Chief Executive OfficerJean-Paul Chifflet, 63, said on a call with journalists. “We will reinforce our financial solidity in 2013 without making a capital increase.” …”
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