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By Lionel Laurent
PARIS, Oct 19 (Reuters) - French banks Credit Agricole and Societe Generale have collectively spent billions of euros sealing their exit from debt-ravaged Greece, injecting capital and sweetening terms for buyers to take businesses off their hands.
Thanks to the French taxman, however, they have managed to recoup 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) from the total bill.
French tax law - which has since been changed - allowed the banks to deduct taxes on capital injected into their ailing Greek units, analysts said, cushioning their bottom line from the maximum amount of pain after pre-crisis investments in Greece turned sour with the euro zone's debt drama.
Credit Agricole's chief financial officer told analysts on a conference call the bank was able to deduct 1.6 billion euros from the 3.2 billion equity loss of selling its Emporiki unit to Alpha Bank, leaving a net loss of 2 billion euros once other costs were added.
SocGen did not disclose the amount deducted but two analysts reached by Reuters estimated the savings would have been around 300 million euros.
A SocGen spokeswoman said taxes were "among several reasons" that explained the gap between the bank's outlay of 444 million euros to sell Geniki to Piraeus Bank and its net-loss impact of 100 million. She declined any further comment.
"It was a good time to get out of Greece," one of the analysts said.
By Lionel Laurent
PARIS, Oct 19 (Reuters) - French banks Credit Agricole and Societe Generale have collectively spent billions of euros sealing their exit from debt-ravaged Greece, injecting capital and sweetening terms for buyers to take businesses off their hands.
Thanks to the French taxman, however, they have managed to recoup 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) from the total bill.
French tax law - which has since been changed - allowed the banks to deduct taxes on capital injected into their ailing Greek units, analysts said, cushioning their bottom line from the maximum amount of pain after pre-crisis investments in Greece turned sour with the euro zone's debt drama.
Credit Agricole's chief financial officer told analysts on a conference call the bank was able to deduct 1.6 billion euros from the 3.2 billion equity loss of selling its Emporiki unit to Alpha Bank, leaving a net loss of 2 billion euros once other costs were added.
SocGen did not disclose the amount deducted but two analysts reached by Reuters estimated the savings would have been around 300 million euros.
A SocGen spokeswoman said taxes were "among several reasons" that explained the gap between the bank's outlay of 444 million euros to sell Geniki to Piraeus Bank and its net-loss impact of 100 million. She declined any further comment.
"It was a good time to get out of Greece," one of the analysts said.
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