Sociéte Générale issued a profit warning on Wednesday after the French bank, which suffered
record trading losses in 2008, took a new hit of €1.4bn ($2.03bn) from risky assets.SocGen, France’s second-biggest bank by market capitalisation, said it was expecting a ”slight profit” for the fourth quarter of 2009.Analysts had expected a net profit of around €960m, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates. SocGen said the negative impact of €1.4bn from risky assets comprised writedowns on collateralised debt obligations of residential mortgage-backed securities, changes in the marked-to-market valuation of credit default swaps and the revaluation of financial liabilities.However, the bank was upbeat about its prospects for 2010. SocGen plans to centralise billions of euros worth of toxic assets into one single legal entity which could help it reduce losses from this area.Thanks to strong customer franchises, with significant growth potential, a robust financial structure and a new management team, Société Générale is in a favourable position to go into 2010 with confidence,” it said.SocGen
shares closed down 1 per cent at 51.67 euros on Tuesday, giving the bank a market capitalisation of around €38bn.The stock has risen around 6 per cent so far this year, in line with a similar gain in the DJ Stoxx European bank index.