Credit Agricole SA, France’s biggest retail bank, posted a fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday after large writedowns due to the global credit crunch and said it was not planning any major acquisitions.
Agricole, which analysts have speculated might be interested in weakened French rival Societe Generale, made a bigger-than-expected net loss of 857 million euros ($1.30 billion), with earnings hit by a 3.3 billion euro writedown at its Calyon investment bank.
A year earlier, it had made a net profit of just over 1 billion euros. “We have built a solid model. With its sound capital base, the group will make organic growth its priority and it is not considering any significant new acquisitions,” Agricole Chairman Rene Carron said in a statement. Agricole said it could not remain indifferent to the situation at SocGen, however.
Exposure problems
“What is clear is that, concerning our domestic market and our position as a leader in this market, we cannot remain indifferent to the changes which might occur,” CFO Bertrand Badre told reporters.
Credit Agricole’s writedown of 3.3 billion euros was greater than the 2.5 billion euros it reported in December. Agricole said this reflected its exposure to problems surrounding monoline insurers — firms that insure against risk of a bond/another security defaulting which have been affected by  credit crunch.