Societe Generale posted a net profit of 1.37 billion euros (1.28 billion in francs) in the 3rd quarter, almost five times higher than last year for the same period. The performance illustrates the awakening of retail business and a favorable base effect.
“The first benefits of the execution of our strategic plan are materializing tangibly in our results,” said the CEO of Société Générale, Slawomir Krupa, quoted Thursday in a press release.
Net profit is higher than analysts’ expectations, as is net banking income (NBI), equivalent to turnover for the sector, up 10.5% year-on-year, to 6.84 billion euros. .
The big winner of the third quarter is retail banking in France, grouped with the insurance and private banking businesses.
Its NBI showed an increase of 18.7%, to 2.25 billion euros, and its net profit was multiplied by 3.4 to reach 368 million euros, the best quarterly performance in more than two years.
Mr. Krupa particularly welcomes a “strong rebound” in the net interest margin in France, that is to say the difference between the rate applied by the bank to its customers and that of its refinancing.
Societe Generale was also able to count between July and September on its main engine: corporate and investment banking.
This division alone brings 699 million euros in net profit (+8.2% over one year), thanks to good performance from transactional banking (a range of services for businesses and financial institutions) and equity markets.
The international retail banking networks, coupled with certain specialized businesses such as automobile leasing and consumer credit, posted a slight decrease in net profit (-2.4%) to 367 million euros.
The difference between the net profit for the third quarter of 2023 and that of the third quarter of 2024 is explained by an exceptional charge last year, linked among other things to a losing hedging policy, group transformation costs and depreciation of assets.
A year later, the effect worked in the opposite direction: the bank collected 290 million euros before taxes as payment for its departure from Russia, precipitated by the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / awp / afp
