Credit Agricole SA, France's biggest retail bank, posted a fourth-quarter loss today as it booked large writedowns due to the global credit crunch and said it was not planning any major acquisitions.
Credit Agricole made a bigger-than-expected net loss of €857 million ($1.30 billion), with earnings hit by a €3.3 billion writedown at its Calyon investment banking arm. A year earlier, the bank had made net profit of just over €1 billion.
Credit Agricole, which analysts have speculated might be interested in weakened French rival Societe Generale, said it was not considering major acquisitions.
Agricole is also tussling with Spanish businessman Jaime Botin to gain influence over Spanish bank Bankinter.
"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.
The credit crisis, which has been caused by writedowns on US subprime mortgages, has triggered losses at many of the world's top banks.
In February, SocGen reported a record fourth-quarter net loss of €3.35 billion.
SocGen booked a total of €2.9 billion in writedowns and its earnings were also hit by €4.9 billion of trading losses which SocGen has blamed on rogue deals carried out by one of its junior traders.
France's biggest listed bank, BNP Paribas, managed to post a fourth-quarter net profit of around €1 billion in February, although this was down 42 per cent from the previous year.