Societe General Loses 7 Billion Euros

123jump.com Staff
24 Jan, 2008
New York City

Societe General stunned the markets after reporting 5 billion losses from a fraud and sub-prime loans in the U.S. A single trader managed to lose 4.9 billion euros exploiting the weakness of risk control system. Jerome Kerviel, 31 years old, traded in the European markets futures and covered his losses with fake trades. The bank also reported subprime loan losses of 3 billion euros on the write-down in assets.

[R]1:00AM New York, 7:00PM – European markets rallied but Societe Generale reported a huge loss on fraudulent trading and subprime losses.[/R]

U.S. stocks in the morning trading edged higher as market extended its rally from yesterday in large and mid cap stocks.[/R]

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 266.50 or 4.75% to 5,875.80, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 280.22 or 6.04% to close at 4,916.98 and in Frankfurt DAX index higher 381.86 or 5.93% to close at 6,821.07. In Zurich trading SMI increased 334.84 or 4.55% to close at 7,690.97

Societe Generale reported a huge loss and company blamed it on trading fraud while eBay offered a softer outlook on earnings.

Societe Generale reported subprime loan loss of $3 billion and blames one trader to engage in a fraud of 4.9 billion euros or $7.1 billion. Market index futures trader named Jerome Kerviel, 31 years of age, engaged in European index futures trading and covered his losses exploiting his intricate knowledge of bank’s risk control procedures.

SG also reported subprime loan write-down of 2.05 billion euro. The combined loan losses and fraud charges will reduce profit in 2007 to between 600 million and 800 million euros.

Nokia ((NOK)) reported fourth quarter sales increased 34% to 15.72 billion euros and 5% rise in sales in mobile phone division to 7.4 billion euros. Mobile handset device unit sales increased 48%. Nokia estimated device market share increase to 40% on increasing operating margin.

Nokia reported fourth quarter earnings per share of 47 euro cents, a rise of 57% from 206 on 15.7 billion euro an increase of 34%.

Nokia operating margin in the quarter increased to 15.9%, up sequentially from 14.6% in Q3 2007, excluding special item and reported operating cash flow of 2.7 billion euros.

Nokia device volumes in the quarter increased to133.5 million units, up 20% sequentially and up 27% year on year on estimated industry device volumes of 336 million units, up 17% sequentially and up 16% year on year.

Nokia estimated device market share of 40%, up from 39% in Q3 2007 and up from 36% in Q4 2006. Nokia said that the average selling price increased to 83 euros, up from 82 euros in third quarter 2007.

Lockheed Martin Corporation ((LMT)) today reported fourth quarter 2007 net earnings of $799 million or $1.89 per diluted share, compared to $729 million or $1.68 per diluted share in 2006.

Net sales were $10.8 billion in both the fourth quarter of 2007 and 2006.

Cash from operations for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $420 million, compared to $333 million in 2006.

Net earnings for the year ended December 31, 2007 were $3.0 billion or $7.10 per share, compared to $2.5 billion or $5.80 per share in 2006.

Net sales for the year ended December 31, 2007 were $41.9 billion, a 6% increase over the $39.6 billion in the comparable 2006 period.

Cash from operations for the year ended December 31, 2007 was $4.2 billion, compared to $3.8 billion in 2006. Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) was 21.4% for the year ended December 31, 2007 compared to 19.2% in 2006.