PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French lender Societe Generale SA (SCGLY.PK, SCGLF.PK) Tuesday reported about 50% fall in first-quarter profit, hurt by accounting charges related to revaluation of its own debt. The firm said it plans additional 900 million euros cost-savings in order to achieve a ROE of 10 percent by end of 2015.
Meanwhile, France-based Crédit Agricole SA (CRARF.PK) said its first-quarter net income jumped 50.7 percent, citing a steady decline in expenses, in a mediocre economic environment. The company said its expenses will continue to contract and aims to lower operating expenses by 650 million euros by 2016.
In the first quarter, Societe Generale's net income fell to 364 million euros, from 732 million euros in the previous year. Recent-quarter net income included results for the Group's businesses of 1.09 billion euros and 377 million euros of disposal proceeds for its Egyptian unit NSGB.
Excluding non-economic items, legacy assets, and non-recurring items, Societe Generale's quarterly net income stood at 852 million euros, while it was 1.17 billion euros last year. Earnings per share were 0.38 euros, after deducting interest payable to holders of deeply subordinated notes and undated subordinated notes.
Gross operating income plunged to 1.02 billion euros from 1.98 billion euros a year earlier, as result of accounting effect of revaluation of its own financial liabilities.
Crédit Agricole SA's net income, Group share for the quarter was 469 million euros, up from 311 million euros last year. Income before tax totaled 576 million euros, lower than 1.70 billion euros reported a year ago. First quarter of 2012 had a gain of 864 million euros from hybrid debt buyback carried out in 2012. Gross operating income dropped to 974 million euros from 2.24 billion euros in the prior year.
Societe Generale's net banking income declined 19.4 percent to 5.09 billion euros from 6.31 billion euros in the same quarter last year. Excluding non-economic items, non-recurring items and legacy assets, revenues were 6.22 billion euros, down 8.6 percent on a like-for-like basis.
Crédit Agricole's revenues fell 26.2 percent to 3.85 billion euros from 5.22 billion euros in the preceding year. The company has restated its prior-year results.
Societe Generale's 'Basel 3' Core Tier ratio was 8.7 percent, and confirmed its ratio target of close to 9.5 percent at the end of 2013.
Crédit Agricole Group net income, group share, was 1.03 billion euros, compared to 863 million euros last year. Revenues decreased 14.1 percent to 7.63 billion euros.
In Paris, Societe Generale shares are currently trading at 29.93 euros, up 4.93 percent, on a volume of 4.26 million shares.
Crédit Agricole trades at 7.21 euros, on 2.86 million shares.
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