Crédit Agricole is planning a €5.9bn ($9.1bn) rights issue to shore up its capital base after large writedowns at Calyon, its investment banking arm.

France’s third-largest bank by market capitalisation, in a statement released ahead of Thursday’s results, confirmed a €1.2bn writedown at Calyon in the first three months of the year related to losses in the US subprime market. This followed a €3.3bn writedown in the final quarter of last year.