Crédit Agricole counts cost of Greek woes

Financial Times
August 26, 2010

Crédit Agricole, France’s biggest bank by branches, reported deepening losses in its international banking business driven by continued woes at its Greek bank but resilience in domestic banking and asset management led to a doubling of first-half net profit.

The mutual banking group was forced to make a €418m ($531m) goodwill impairment charge at Emporiki, its Greek bank, in the three months to the end of June. This followed last year’s €485m goodwill writedown.

Emporiki has been badly affected by the economic downturn in its home country, delaying plans by Agricole to make the bank profitable from 2011 to 2012. Agricole has made provisions and writedowns of €1.4bn at the Greek bank since the beginning of 2008. It paid €3.3bn for a 72 per cent stake in 2006 and has raised its ownership to 90 per cent since.

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