* Clients to be served by parent banks DnB NOR, NORD/LB
* DnB NORD to focus on Baltics, Poland
* Shares in DnB NOR down 3 percent
(Adds staff cut figures)
OSLO, June 25 (Reuters) - Bank DnB NORD, 51 percent owned by Norway's leading lender DnB NOR, said on Thursday it was shedding its clients in Denmark and Finland and refocusing its operations on core markets in the Baltic states and Poland.
The change will involve about 40 job cuts in Denmark and Finland, though some employees may be transferred to DnB NOR units in the two countries, a spokesman said.
DnB NORD, whose other shareholder is German NORD/LB Norddeutsche Landesbank, has been hit hard by economic woes in the Baltics and the bursting of the real estate bubble in Denmark.
"While the headquarters will remain in Copenhagen, customers in the Danish and Finnish portfolio will be serviced by DnB NOR and NORD/LB directly," DnB NORD said in a statement.
Clients in Denmark and Finland will be served by DnB NORD's parent companies, according to their shareholding.
"DnB NORD will now focus on its Eastern European core markets Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland where the bank has a relevant market size or reasonable growth potential," it said.
It said both parent banks "welcome the sharpening of the strategic focus of DnB NORD" on its core markets and "confirm their continued and full support" for the joint venture.
Shares in DnB NOR fell in the wake of the statement, which some analysts said suggested bigger problems at DnB NORD than earlier anticipated. The stock was down 3.2 percent at 48.90 crowns at 1507 GMT, underperforming a 1 percent drop in the Oslo bourse's benchmark index.
A number of Nordic banks, including Nordea, SEB and Swedbank , have been hit hard by their exposure to the Baltics, whose economies turned from boom to bust during the global credit crisis. (Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa; Additional reporting by Af Rasmus Nord Jorgensen; Editing by Mike Nesbit and Jon Loades-Carter)