Online bank Egg is abandoning any attempts at international expansion and will shut down its French operation unless it can find a joint venture partner, its chief executive said yesterday. Paul Gratton said 70 jobs would be lost as a result of the decision to retrench internationally.

He is resisting any calls for him to immediately pull back from the loss-making operation in France until he has pursued talks with potential part ners with deeper pockets. Egg, whose shares fell 6.25p at 145p, revealed that the French business had suffered £69.5m of losses in the first nine months of the year which had helped to drive the entire group to a £24.9m loss. In the same nine months last year, Egg made a £3.9m profit.

In the third quarter alone the loss in France was £20.8m which wiped out the £20m profit made in Britain.

Still majority-owned by insurance company Prudential, Egg has concluded that to continue trying to offer credit cards to the French will take too long and cost more than it wants to spend.

Mr Gratton said French customers had started to realise they were being "ripped off" by established lenders but Egg risked being beaten to customers by "fast followers" copying its marketing-beating rates.

"We believe it is in the best interests of our shareholders to form an alliance with a strategic partner and accordingly, we are in negotiations which may lead to a joint venture or other transaction," Mr Gratton said. He indicated that he would reach a conclusion on the future of the French business by the end of the year.

Analysts at Commerzbank criticised Egg for not taking more decisive action over the French arm. "Egg refuses to bite the bullet," the analysts said.

Mr Gratton pointed to strong performance in Britain, where it made £56m of profit in the nine months compared with £21m in the earlier nine.