BNP Paribas misses as Greece charge stings
PARIS | Tue Aug 2, 2011 1:11am EDT
PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas (
BNPP.PA) missed second quarter profit forecasts on Tuesday, hurt by a charge on its exposure to
Greece even after a resilient showing in its retail and investment banking divisions.
France's biggest listed bank managed to curtail the fallout from a tough three months for bond trading, performing better in this area than rivals, and grew revenues in some of its key retail networks, including in
Italy.
Net income was also lower than expected at 2.13 billion euros but flat compared to the same period in 2010 and short of the 2.23 billion euros consensus prediction from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
It took a 534 million euro ($768.3 million) hit from its contribution to a bailout of Greece, however, while overall revenue growth was still lower than expected.
Revenues came in at 10.9 billion euros, falling short of the 11.2 billion euros estimate average from an analyst poll by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
BNP Paribas has the biggest exposure to Greek sovereign
bonds among its French peers, at close to 5 billion euros, and took the hit as part of its contribution to a private sector bailout of the country, which it helped coordinate.
The bank said it held 2.3 billion euros of Greek bonds maturing by the end of December 2020 and affected by its bailout participation. It will take a 21 percent haircut on these, meaning it will not recover their full value.
BNP Paribas posted improved investment banking revenues, which grew 5.7 percent from a year ago despite a tough period for the sector.
Fixed income
earnings fell 12.2 percent, a much smaller drop than for many rivals. The bank still saw a slowdown elsewhere, however, including in financing.
The bank said its core Tier 1 ratio stood at 9.6 percent, up form 8.4 percent a year ago.