BNP Paribas profit declines

November 14, 2001 Posted: 0931 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, said profit fell 7.6 percent as it put money aside for potential bad loans and weak equity markets.

BNP's results compared favourably to figures released by some of its European peers because the bank relies on steady income from its consumer banking business and fixed income activities.

Dutch bank ABN AMRO, Swiss giant UBS and Europe's biggest bank Deutsche Bank, which rely more heavily on volatile investment banking income, reported declines in net profit of about 40 percent.  

The weak equity markets and sharp economic downturn, which has hurt banks around the globe, was also evident in BNP's results.

The Paris-based bank said on Wednesday third-quarter net income to 743 million ($659 million) from 804 million in the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by Reuters expected earning of about 783 million.

"Given the unpredictable consequences of the continued slowdown in the global economy and the uncertainties due to the world political situation, it is naturally difficult to predict business trends for the coming months," said chairman Michel Pebereau.

Capital gains on the bank's myriad industrial holdings fell a whopping 73 percent to 155 million and provisions were up a stronger-than-expected 20.1 percent to 370 million.

That was largely due to a near doubling of risk provisions in the retail division to 182 million euros -- a rise analysts attributed to the bank's exposure to failing French appliance maker Moulinex.

Pretax income from corporate and investment banking held up surprisingly well, falling a mere 2.1 percent to 380 million.

Retail banking continued to prop up BNP results, with pretax income up 8.3 percent year-on-year to 563 million euros. Private banking, asset management, insurance and securities activities saw income slip 1.5 percent to 196 million.

BNP's stock rose 2 percent to 99.00, up more than 35 percent from a two-year low of 72.80 hit on September 21. Since the start of the year, the stock has inched up four percent, outperforming the DJ Stoxx European banks index, which is down 12 percent over the period.

--Reuters contributed to this report.