Thursday 19 February 2009

SocGen takes a Russian hit

Société Générale, France’s second-biggest bank, on Wednesday put its Russian expansion plans on hold and wrote down some Russian assets but insisted it remained confident about the outlook for eastern Europe.

Growing concern about the health of economies in eastern Europe have hammered shares in SocGen, which has more exposure to the region than other French banks. It has a majority stake in Rosbank, the Russian bank, and owns the Czech Republic’s third-largest consumer banking network as well as Romania’s second-biggest bank.

Shares in SocGen have fallen 35 per cent since January, underperforming the FTSE Eurofirst Banks index by 14 per cent. The other French banks have all outperformed the index. It clawed back some of the losses on Wednesday, closing 2.7 per cent higher.

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