BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank, said third-quarter profit fell 72 percent because of a writedown on Greek sovereign debt and losses from selling European government bonds.
Net income declined to 541 million euros ($741 million) from 1.91 billion euros a year earlier, the Paris-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. That missed the 1.24 billion-euro average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The bank took a 2.26 billion-euro pretax writedown on Greek sovereign debt in the period.
“The new plan of Greek debt restructuring weighed on the results,” Chief Executive Officer Baudouin Prot said in the statement. Still, the company “is profitable and is keeping its solvency ratio at a high level,” he said.
BNP Paribas (BNP) said today it expects about 1.2 billion euros in losses from disposals and one-time costs as it speeds up asset cuts to comply with new capital rules. The bank, along with smaller French rival Societe Generale SA, is racing to shrink its balance sheet after the firm’s stock plunged and U.S. money-market funds became reluctant to lend to it in dollars, making it harder to refinance international businesses.
