Societe Generale on Thursday reported a sharp decline in fourth-quarter net profit on the back of weaker net banking income, but launched a new 280 million euro ($302 million) share buyback program.
The French lender posted a group net income of 430 million euros, slightly above a consensus analyst forecast of 404 million euros, according to LSEG data, but well below the 1.07 billion euros recorded for the final quarter of 2022.
It comes after the bank posted posted a group net income of 295 million euros for the third quarter, as resilient investment bank performance offset a sharp downturn in its French retail business.
Thursday's result took France's third-largest listed bank's annual net profit to 2.49 billion euros, slightly above analyst expectations of 2.15 billion euros.
However, quarterly net banking revenue dropped 9.9% year-on-year to 5.96 billion euros, which the bank attributed largely to a decline in net interest income in French retail, and its private banking and insurance division, along with the negative impacts from unwinding hedges.
Persons:
Slawomir Krupa, Krupa, BoursoBank
Organizations:
Generale, SocGen, Global Banking, Investor Solutions, Retail Banking, Soc
Locations:
France