Greece and disposals have saddled the results of BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas said Wednesday net profit halved in the fourth quarter, to 765 million euros, mainly because of a new provisioning on Greece and a significant contraction of its profits in corporate banking and investment because of the crisis in the euro area.
The French bank said in a statement it had spent an additional charge of 639 million euros in its accounts for the last quarter of 2011 on government debt, bringing its funding to 75% on Greece.
The CEO of BNP Paribas said to be confident that the group will not have to place new provisions on Greece negotiating a new bailout with the International Monetary International Monetary Fund, the European Union, the European Central Bank and its private creditors.
"It's the visions that we have," said Jean-Laurent Bonnafé in an interview with Reuters Insider.
Despite being down sharply, the results of BNP Paribas, however, reveal higher expectations of analysts polled by the editor of Reuters.
The latter on average expected higher losses in market activities and investment, just like what came out of the results of Deutsche Bank.
"AHEAD" ON RECAPITALIZATION
BNP Paribas, which has decided to maintain a dividend despite the crisis, also estimated to have reached six months ahead with the recapitalization objectives set by European regulators, with a ratio capital of 9.6% at end 2011.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has indeed demanded of European banks they reach at least 9% of equity by the end of June 2012.
In BFI, where the bank has suffered for 510 million euros in losses on disposals of sovereign debt in the fourth quarter, BNP Paribas expects this year on new recurring expenses of 850 million euros related to asset sales and restructuring of its operations.
"The beginning of yeara been strong enough in the investment bank", indicated Jean-Laurent Bonnafé.
Hired as many European banks in a plan to reduce stock and asset sales, the CEO of BNP indicates that he had "no plans" regarding a sale of its im ; Rican BancWest. He also rejects any sale of its land Klépierre which the bank holds 51% stake.
"This unit is not for sale. (…) We have to pursue our plan to reduce balance sheet, we're working on," said Jean-Laurent Bonnafé.
At the Paris Bourse, the stock has increased 10% since the beginning of the year after falling 36% in 2011.