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By Lionel Laurent and Matthias Blamont
PARIS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Societe Generale will name a new chief financial officer on Wednesday, seeking stability in the role after Bertrand Badre quit a year into the job, sources close to the matter told Reuters.
Internal candidates at France's No.2 listed bank are the frontrunners to replace Badre, who is leaving in March to join the World Bank, the sources said. Among those in the frame are Deputy CFO Philippe Heim and the head of specialist financial services Didier Hauguel.
Though analysts say the final choice is unlikely to have a major impact on market perceptions of the bank, which also reports fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, Chief Executive Frederic Oudea is under pressure to give clues on its long-term strategy.
The bank is at the end a year-long drive to reduce debt and beef up its balance sheet, while rivals such as UBS and Barclays are launching major overhauls.
Two people close to the bank also said that Jacques Ripoll, head of its asset-gathering division GIMS, would step down. Ripoll was offered the CFO job early in the process but turned it down, they said.
A SocGen spokeswoman declined to comment.
The average forecast in a Reuters poll of eight analysts is for the bank to swing to a fourth-quarter net loss of 237 million euros ($317 million), compared with a quarterly profit of 100 million euros in 2011.
This would put SocGen's total annual profit at 1 billion euros - a far cry from the 6 billion euro target set by CEO Oudea in 2010. Though the bank shelved this target in 2011, it has yet to say how it will fight the euro zone's sluggish economic recovery and tougher regulation.
SocGen shares are up 13 percent so far this year, against an 8 percent gain for the STOXX Europe 600 bank index. ($1 = 0.7474 euros)
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