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Studios: Credit Lyonnais doesn’t need to sell the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio before 1997, as had originally been expected, because the studio has been spun off from the bank, officials in France said. Consortium de Realisations was formed to remove risky assets from state-controlled Credit Lyonnais’ balance sheet and prepare them for sale. U.S. bank laws dating to 1956 require banks to sell within five years non-banking operations they have seized. Credit Lyonnais seized the studio from financier Giancarlo Parretti in 1992. The Times reported in March that MGM could buy more time in finding a buyer by making the case that Credit Lyonnais no longer legally owns the studio. Michel Rouget, who heads Consortium de Realisations, said he believes that now that MGM has been removed from the balance sheet of the bank, that requirement is moot. “MGM is owned by CDR and CDR is not a bank,” Rouget said. “We will sell MGM whenever it is ready to be sold,” not necessarily in 1997, he said. Separately, MGM sources add that a potential new banking law pending in Washington--which would extend the time foreign banks have to sell such assets--could add even more time to any deadline to sell the studio.