Hold-up as Egg's French loss leaps

INTERNET bank Egg today admitted it will not be able to offload its haemorrhaging French business by the end of the year.

In October, Egg said it could shoulder the costs of its credit card start-up over the Channel and would close the unit if a partner was not found. It said of possible joint ventures: 'We anticipate these negotiations will be concluded by the end of this year.'

But as Britain's other banks provide their pre-end-of-year trading updates, Egg today said it would not be able to do so until the New Year. Given that its full-year results are due on 23 February, analysts took that to mean in January.

It said of its French business: 'Negotiations are ongoing and we are considering a number of options.'

In the nine months to September, the French side of Egg lost £69.5m against £19.4m in the first three quarters of 2002. It employs some 450 people and closure would involve heavy redundancy costs under French law.