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PARIS : French bank Societe Generale reported a big quarterly profits fall on Tuesday but exceeded analysts' expectations after huge losses inflicted by its rogue trader scandal.
The bank said net profit in the first quarter fell by 23.4 percent to 1.096 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars), a fall of 23.4 percent from the equivalent figure last year.
Profits for all 2007 were slashed by 80 percent to 947 million euros owing to alleged unauthorised deals by trader Jerome Kerviel and owing to losses on the US sub-prime loan market.
Analysts had expected a first quarter figure of 947 million euros. The bank said that the higher result reflected its capacity to "withstand" difficulties and to "bounce back."
For the first quarter, the bank took a charge for problems associated with the US sub-prime market of 513 million euros but this was more than matched by an exceptional capital gain of 602 million euros from the creation of a joint brokerage subsidiary with Credit Agricole bank called Newedge.
The bank said a capital increase to raise 5.5 billion euros which it had made in March, following the exceptional trading losses, had enabled it to "preserve its business base and to resume its development without delay."
Societe Generale says it lost 4.9 billion euros (7.1 billion dollars) unwinding more than 50 billion euros of unauthorised deals by Kerviel. The former junior trader denies acting without the bank's knowledge,
- AFP /ls
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