Societe Generale earnings down 84%

Societe Generale SA, France's third-largest bank, said profit fell 84 percent in the third quarter as credit-related writedowns caused losses at the investment-banking and asset-management units.

Net income dropped to 183 million euros from 1.12 billion euros a year earlier, the Paris-based bank said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

The median estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was a profit of 581 million euros.