Agricole to sell assets, restructure Calyon

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

PARIS (Reuters) - Credit Agricole SA (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), France's biggest retail bank, will sell assets and restructure its Calyon investment banking arm, it said on Thursday as it confirmed a 5.9 billion euro ($9.1 billion) rights issue.

Agricole, one of many banks damaged by the global credit crunch, said it had identified around 5 billion euros of potential disposals to be made over 18 months.

Analysts said this could include the bank's 5.6 percent stake in Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which is currently worth some 3 billion euros.

Agricole said it would cut around 10 percent of costs at Calyon, which had a first quarter writedown of 1.2 billion euros due to the credit market problems.

"Credit Agricole has paid the price of this crisis," Chief Executive Georges Pauget told reporters.

Agricole unveiled the key elements of its first-quarter results and its planned rights issue earlier this week. It formally published the full first-quarter figures on Thursday.

"The rights issue will be launched before the summer, subject to market conditions," Agricole said in a statement.

Agricole said the cash from the rights issue would bolster its Tier One capital ratio to 8.5 percent from 7.7 percent. France's biggest listed bank BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said this week that its Tier One ratio stood at 7.6 percent.