PARIS (Reuters) - French investment bank Natixis (CNAT.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) declared more than 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) of write-downs linked to the credit crisis on Thursday, wiping more than half the value off its expected full-year profits.

Natixis, formed in December 2006 out of the merger of Ixis and Natexis, said in a statement its 2007 net income after tax would come in at around 1 billion euros. The bank's 9-month underlying net income was 1.687 billion euros.

Analysts on average had expected the bank to post a profit of 2.14 billion euros for the full year, Reuters Estimates showed.

"There is no capital increase planned, except that resulting from the payment of a share dividend," Natixis said in the statement.

A payment of a dividend equivalent to 50 percent of the final consolidated net income would be proposed at the general shareholder meeting, Natixis said.

Its Tier One ratio was at least 8 percent at Dec. 31, 2007, it added. At the end of September, its Tier One stood at 8.3 percent.

In the statement, Natixis declared total write-downs from indirect exposure to sub-prime worth 817 million euros. It also had 380 million euros of write-downs linked to monoline insurers.

"For the most part, these write-downs affect the net banking income. Taking into account these write-downs, Natixis should record an underlying net income after tax of approximately 1 billion euros for 2007," it said.

At its third-quarter results announcement on Nov. 25, Natixis put the cost of the financial crisis prompted by the U.S. subprime mortgage turmoil at 407 million euros.