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News > International
BNP merger boosts profit
March 7, 2001: 6:43 a.m. ET

French bank's profit jumps 26 percent on cost savings from Paribas merger
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LONDON (CNN) - BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, said on Wednesday full-year profit rose 26 percent on better than expected merger cost savings.

Net profit, before restructuring costs, rose to graphic4.1 billion ($3.8 billion) from graphic3.266 billion, a year ago. BNP's cost savings from its takeover of investment bank Paribas in 1999 totalled graphic268 million, above its target of graphic140 million.

graphicMost of the cost savings came from the loss of 2,335 jobs in 2000, that's just half the jobs it plans to cut by 2002.

"There's been good cost control, which is reassuring, and no explosion in provisions," Jean-Baptiste Bellon, analyst at Deutsche Bank, told Reuters.

Shares in BNP rose 3.5 percent to graphic90.70 in midday trading in Paris. The Paris-based bank is the last of the three big French banks to report 2000 results.

Societe Generale and Credit Lyonnais also reported record net profits for last year as a favourable economic and market environment bolstered net banking income in all divisions.

Net banking income at BNP Paribas climbed 13 percent to graphic16.3 billion, operating costs in the retail banking business in France rose 0.8 percent.

Gross operating profits at BNP Paribas' investment banking division came in at graphic549 million in the last three months of the year, up 15 percent from a year earlier and 25.3 percent from the third quarter. graphic




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