Socié té Gé né rale Boosted by Retail Banking
November 05 2015 - 1:00AM
Dow Jones News
PARIS—Socié té Gé né rale SA on Thursday reported a jump in
third-quarter net profit, lifted by an accounting gain and improved
income from its retail banking business, as France chugs toward
economic recovery.
The Paris-based lender, France's third-largest listed bank by
assets, said net profit rose 28% to €1.13 billion ($1.23 billion)
in the three months through September, from €882 million a year
earlier.
It booked a €447 million gain because of an accounting rule that
permits banks to post paper profit when the value of their own
credit declines.
Revenue increased by 8% to €6.36 billion from €5.88 billion in
the same period last year.
Socié té Gé né rale's third-quarter earnings reflect an uptick
in loan demand in France, as the country's economy progressively
recovers from back to back crises.
Its retail bank in France posted net profit of €410 million, up
29% from the same quarter last year.
However, market volatility, fueled by investors' concerns over
slower economic growth in China, pushed net profit for its global
banking and investor solution business 30% lower to €320 million in
the third-quarter.
In Russia, where Socié té Gé né rale is struggling with a
difficult economy and continuing economic sanctions, the bank
posted a €20 million third-quarter loss. Socié té Gé né rale owns
one of the country's largest private lenders, Rosbank.
Total revenue growth helped the bank continue to raise its
capital cushions to meet tighter regulation.
Socié té Gé né rale's core tier-one ratio, which compares top
quality capital such as equity and retained earnings with
risk-weighted assets, stood at 10.5%, up from 10.4% at the end of
June.
Socié té Gé né rale said it is still targeting a core tier-one
ratio of close to 11% by the end of 2016.
The bank's leverage ratio, which measures capital held by the
bank against its total assets, rose to 3.9%, from 3.8% at the end
of June.
Write to Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 05, 2015 01:45 ET (06:45 GMT)
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