LONDON (MarketWatch) -- French bank Credit Agricole swung to a fourth-quarter loss of 857 million euros ($1.3 billion) following a $5 billion write-down and indicated that it's not interested in buying troubled rival Societe Generale.
The fourth-quarter result, reported Wednesday, was worse than the roughly 600-million-euro loss analysts expected and compared with profit of around 1.1 billion euros in the year-earlier period.
Credit Agricole (FR:004507: news, chart, profile) , France's third-largest bank by market capitalization, said it took a write-down of 3.3 billion euros at its Calyon investment banking division. The charge was around 800 million euros more than it had previously disclosed, due to its exposure to bond insurers.
Excluding the write-downs and some one-time gains, the bank earned 1.29 billion euros in the quarter as its French retail-banking and asset-management divisions posted profit.
Credit Agricole has been cited as a possible bidder for Societe Generale (FR:013080: news, chart, profile) after its French rival reported losses of more than $7 billion from unauthorized trading.
However, Chairman Rene Carron on Wednesday effectively dismissed the idea.
"With its sound capital base, the group will make organic growth its priority, and it is not considering any significant new acquisitions," Carron said in a statement.
That decision helped support the bank's shares, which rose 3% in early Paris trading, outperforming solid gains for most European markets.
Credit Agricole plans to raise its dividend by 4.3% to 1.2 euros a share and will offer shareholders the option of receiving payment in cash, or a mix of 80% shares and 20% cash.
The bank added that its biggest shareholder, SAS La Boetie, indicated it was "strongly in favor" of the choice and would take its dividend in shares.
If all holders follow suit and opt for payment in shares, it would be equivalent to the bank raising 1.5 billion euros of new capital, according to analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
Following the disposal of its holding in Suez (FR:012052: news, chart, profile) and other capital gains in January, Credit Agricole said it intends to use some of the proceeds to strengthen risk management and control systems within the group.
Investment banking weakness
Breaking the results down by division, problems were concentrated in the bank's Calyon investment banking unit, which reported a loss of 1.91 billion euros. Even excluding the write-downs, the unit's profit fell 25% to 255 million euros due to deteriorating investment banking markets.
In asset management, insurance and private banking, operating profit rose 10% in the fourth quarter to 622 million euros, helped by gains from unwinding its joint venture with Intesa Sanpaolo (IT:ISP: news, chart, profile) .
In its LCL French retail-banking division, fourth-quarter profit rose 6.5% to 170 million euros, helped by rising customer deposits. 
Simon Kennedy is the City correspondent for MarketWatch in London.
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