Societe Generale did better than expected in Q2
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010Societe Generale on Wednesday posted a net income multiplied by 3.5 in the second quarter of 2010, above expectations, thanks to a decline in its stores and a smaller than expected loss in its toxic assets, and confirmed objectives.
The second French bank by market value after BNP Paribas, says that it achieved a net profit of 1.084 million euros for the quarter ended in June, where the consensus reached by the editor of Reuters expected a general result to 732 million.
His provisions for potential loss on the credit over the period fell by 6% but the rate of decline in the cost of risk is much slower than some of its rivals, reflecting a more cautious speech of SocGen on the strength of economic recovery.
BNP Paribas and British bank HSBC, for example reported Monday in stores near their level before the crisis.
"The economic recovery that began in late 2009 confirmed, but it remains fragile," said Frederic Oudéa, CEO of Societe Generale, said in the statement.
"Especially in Europe, growth prospects remain subdued," he adds.
Penalized by the toxic assets, and author of "profit warnings" on its books of 2009, SocGen tries since the beginning of the year to convince the market of its ability to turn the page on the financial and economic crisis and the of the Kerviel affair.
The new management team led by Frederick since May 2009 Oudéa promised mid-June to double the profits of Societe Generale in two years and is targeting a net profit of six billion euros in 2012 against a target of three billion this year.
The bank is also considering acquisitions but said it does not fund them through capital increases.
Besides the new strategic plan, the results of resistance tests conducted on 91 European banks and the announcement by the Basel Committee's flexibility to draft new banking regulation has been a breath of oxygen to the action SocGen, long shunned by investors.
In the past four weeks, the title, boosted by good news on the European banking sector jumped 40%. Since the beginning of the year, however, still leaves nearly 8% and continues to underperform its benchmark Stoxx 600 European banks.