PARIS, Feb 7 (Reuters) – European insurers and asset
managers are taking on more risk to boost investment returns by
lending to big-ticket infrastructure projects, companies and
property developers where banks might no longer be able to
provide.

The diversification, starting from a small base, stretches
from France, where BNP Paribas Investment Partners
recently launched its third corporate debt fund for insurers in
a year, to northern Europe, where Swiss Re is to
invest $500 million in senior debt issued by northern European
infrastructure projects.

PARIS (Reuters) – Investment banks Lazard and Messier Maris have been mandated to sell Maisons du Monde, a furniture store chain owned by private equity firms Apax and LBO France, sources familiar with the deal said on Wednesday.

Lazard and Messier Maris, the boutique bank controlled by former Vivendi Chief Executive Jean-Marie Messier, were chosen last week to run the process, expected to kick off later this month, the sources said.

PARIS (Reuters) – Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), France’s No. 3 bank, announced a further 3.8 billion euros ($5.2 billion) in charges on Friday as banks struggle to move on from ill-timed deals before the 2008 financial crisis.

The charges come less than three months after Credit Agricole unveiled 3.6 billion euros of writedowns with its third-quarter results and will plunge it to the largest annual loss since it went public in 2001.

PARIS, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Credit Agricole, France’s
No. 3 bank, announced a further 3.8 billion euros ($5.2 billion)
in charges on Friday as banks struggle to move on from ill-timed
deals before the 2008 financial crisis.

The charges come less than three months after Credit
Agricole unveiled 3.6 billion euros of writedowns with its
third-quarter results and will plunge it to the largest annual
loss since it went public in 2001.

PARIS (Reuters) – Private equity firms including Carlyle (CG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and KKR (KKR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) this week submitted non-binding offers for control of French fashion brands Maje, Sandro and Claudie Pierlot, sources familiar with the transaction told Reuters.

The auction of the brands, known for their trendy and affordable ready-to-wear garments, has generated close interest in part because of a dearth of similar assets of that size on the market, one of the sources said.

PARIS (Reuters) – Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) sold a 5.2 percent stake in Spain’s Bankinter (BKT.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), continuing its strategy to refocus on domestic operations, but saw profit from the deal eclipsed by a big charge as its owners revalued their Agricole holding.

Credit Agricole is controlled by a network of French regional banks via holding company SAS Rue La Boetie. The banks have adjusted the value of their stake to account for a drop in Agricole’s shares which despite recent gains are worth less than half the price of their December 2001 initial public offering.

PARIS (Reuters) – Societe Generale (SOGN.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Wednesday that its quarterly earnings would be hit by hundreds of millions of euros of one-off charges.

The bank said it would write down an unspecified portion of 384 million euros ($510.58 million) in goodwill on its balance sheet for brokerage Newedge in the fourth quarter, and would take a charge on its own debt of more than 605 million euros.

PARIS, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Societe Generale shares
fell as much as 4.9 percent on Wednesday after the French bank’s
outgoing chief financial officer told analysts about
fourth-quarter write-downs and rising loan losses.

Bertrand Badre, who is leaving in March to join the World
Bank, said at a private dinner on Tuesday the bank faced a
goodwill impairment from restructuring brokerage Newedge of
between 200 million euros to 384 million euros and an accounting
loss on its own debt of up to 1 billion ($1.33 billion),
according to analysts who attended.

PARIS/MILAN, Dec 20 (Reuters) – French bank Credit Agricole
, having paid billions of euros to extricate itself
from an ill-fated Greek acquisition, is now struggling with
rising loan losses in Italy.

Its 19 billion euro ($25.2 billion) Italian consumer credit
unit Agos Ducato, the latest of a series of soured foreign bets,
is already reeling and Agricole last month took a shock 572
million euro quarterly goodwill provision for the unit.

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) – French state bank Caisse des Depots (CDC) has teamed up with Abu Dhabi investment fund ADIA ADIAIN.UL to form a powerful consortium to bid for Total’s (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) TIGF gas network business, sources said.

The move increases pressure on rival contenders for TIGF, which sources say is worth 2.5 billion euros (1.98 billion pounds), as a late-January deadline for final bids approaches, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.