SocGen Ivory Coast profit down 53.5 pct due to crisis

The Ivorian unit of Societe Generale recorded 3.95 billion CFA francs in profit for the first half of 2011, down 53.5 percent on the same period last year, the bank said in a statement posted on the West African BRVM bourse's website on Monday.

The bank blamed the fall on a two-month shutdown of its operations during Ivory Coast's violent post-election power struggle earlier this year.

It said that results from the second half of the year would be better as the bank's operations were now fully restored.