BNP Paribas sees Q4 loss of euro1.4 billion

PARIS: BNP Paribas SA said it expects to report a euro1.4 billion net loss in the fourth quarter after ``exceptionally violent'' market swings led to writedowns on assets and a loss at its investment banking unit.

France's largest bank said in a statement its corporate and investment banking unit is expected to book a pretax loss of around euro2 billion due to the higher cost of risk on capital markets. It also wrote down euro400 million in the quarter after the sharp drop in stock markets.

For the full year, BNP Paribas said it expects a net profit of around euro3 billion thanks to the ``good performance'' of retail banking and asset management.

BNP will publish its full annual results on Feb. 19. Shares of BNP Paribas rose 7.1 per cent to euro22.90 in morning Paris trading Monday.

``In this period of strong market turbulence, I think it was very important, out of concern for transparency, to tell the market what the results were'' for the fourth quarter and the year, CEO Baudouin Prot said on BFM radio, explaining the early forecast of 2008 results.

Prot defended BNP's handling of the crisis and said the bank had ``a very good performance for the year as a whole.''

``In a year that was difficult for all banks, with euro3 billion in profits for the group, we will be among the top 10 banks worldwide by earnings,'' Prot said.