Published on : 03/08/2022 – 08:34Modified : 03/08/2022 – 08:32
Paris (AFP) – Societe Generale announced Wednesday a net loss of nearly 1.5 billion euros in the second quarter, affected by an exceptional charge for the sale in May of its Russian subsidiary Rosbank.
Its net banking income (NBI), equivalent to turnover, amounted to 7 billion euros from April to June, up 12.8% over one year, driven by all businesses.
The second quarter of 2022 “concludes two years of intense and disciplined execution of our various strategic projects”, comments the general manager Frédéric Oudéa, quoted in a press release.
Retail banking, bringing together the Société Générale and Crédit du Nord branch networks, which will be merged from next year, posted an increase in its net banking income of 8.5% over one year.
Boursorama, the group’s online bank, passed the 4 million customer mark in July.
The international retail banking networks, grouped with insurance and specialized services, saw their NBI climb by 15.8% over one year, well helped by a “record” quarter of the car leasing subsidiary ALD.
Corporate and investment banking, the last third of Société Générale’s income, rose by 18.3%.
Societe Generale has already experienced a comparable second quarter in terms of results: it recorded a loss of 1.26 billion euros in the second quarter of 2020 linked to the Covid-19 crisis.
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If the impact of the sale of Rosbank is particularly strong, it is not a surprise for the market.
The French bank announced on May 18 that the sale of its Russian subsidiary to the Russian investment fund Interros founded by the oligarch Vladimir Potanin, close to Vladimir Putin, would result in a net loss then estimated at 3.2 billion euros. euros.
“We were able to manage our exit from Russian activities (…) without hampering the Group’s strategic developments,” said Mr. Oudéa in the press release.
This operation “will have a high cost (…) but a limited capital impact”, he specified on May 17, during the bank’s general meeting.
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Rosbank had reported 115 million euros in 2021 to Société Générale for 643 million euros in turnover, or 2% and 2.5% respectively of the entire group.
For retail banking, Russia was the group’s third largest country, following France and the Czech Republic. And the second in terms of workforce, with more than 12,000 employees, or a tenth of the total.
Excluding the Russian impact, the bank’s result amounted to +1.5 billion euros. This is more than in the second quarter of 2021.
Societe Generale also indicated Thursday that its solvency ratio stood at 12.9% on June 30, above the regulatory requirement.
By integrating the 842 million euros earned in the first quarter, Société Générale only shows a loss of 640 million euros between January 1 and June 30.
The bank is finally looking for a successor to Frédéric Oudéa, who announced at the last general meeting of the group that he would not stand once more at the end of his current mandate, in 2023.
© 2022 AFP
