SocGen posts $4.91B net loss for 4Q

PARIS, France (AP) -- Societe Generale SA says it had a net loss in the fourth quarter last year after the French bank took a €4.9 billion ($7.18 billion) hit closing the unauthorized trading positions of Jerome Kerviel.

France's second-largest bank said Thursday it made a net loss of €3.35 billion ($4.91 billion) compared with a €1.18 billion ($1.73 billion) net profit in the same period of 2006.

The Paris-based bank had already announced preliminary results February 11 in a prospectus for investors taking part in a €5.5 billion (nearly $8 billion) capital increase.

The subscription period runs from Thursday until February 29.

For the full year, SocGen confirmed that it made a net profit of €947 million after €5.2 billion in 2006.

Investigators in the trading scandal said Wednesday that an internal probe has so far found the only trader implicated in the scandal acted alone.

An internal investigating committee said it had found no evidence that anyone helped futures trader Jerome Kerviel hide his positions or that he may have made personal monetary gains through the allegedly unauthorized positions.

In an interim report, the investigators at France's second-largest bank said controls were followed, in general, according to procedure, but they failed to stop Kerviel, 31, who is accused of carrying out trades that led to the losses.

So far, "there is no evidence of embezzlement or internal or external complicity," said the report. E-mail to a friend

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