French bank Société Générale said it had a "slight profit" in the fourth quarter after about €1.4 billion of writedowns and provisions on risky assets.
The Paris-based bank, which didn't provide a specific profit figure in its statement today, earned €87 million in the same period of 2008.
Analysts had expected fourth-quarter income net income of €850 million, based on the median of six estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Société Générale marked down mortgage-related securities because of an increase in estimated loss rates on US subprime and prime loans.
"We hardened our assumptions in valuing risky assets," chief financial officer Didier Valet said on a conference call with journalists. "We're in a position to confidently tackle 2010."
Société Générale, which had about €10 billion in markdowns and provisions stemming from the global financial crisis through September, said last week it plans to isolate risky assets in a separate unit. The company had assets at risk with an accounting value of about €37 billion at the end of 2009 from holdings including asset-backed securities and debt backed by US bond insurers.
The bank said fourth-quarter revenue at the corporate- and investment-banking unit, especially in fixed income, was below third-quarter levels, "reflecting lower investor activity as of November and less favorable market conditions."
In the third quarter, the division's revenue rose 43 per cent to €2.52 billion, excluding writedowns.
Bloomberg