Societe Generale SA said Friday that its third-quarter profit beat expectations on strong revenue after resilient performances in both its retail and investment-banking operations, and raised its operating-margin forecast for the year.
The French lender
GLE,
reported quarterly net profit of 1.50 billion euros ($1.46 billion), down from EUR1.60 billion a year earlier.
Net banking income, its top-line figure, rose 2.3% to EUR6.83 billion.
That compared with expectations of net profit of EUR1.05 billion and revenue of EUR6.29 billion, according to consensus estimates provided by FactSet.
The Paris-based company said the result was driven by the resilience of its French retail bank, strong growth in its international retail operations and robust performance at its investment bank.
Its common equity Tier 1 ratio, a gauge of financial strength, was 13.1% at the end of September, up 13 basis points from the end of June, while cost of risk was stable at 31 basis points, or EUR456 million.
The bank raised its operating margin for the year, saying that its 2022 underlying cost-to-income ratio would be 64%, compared with a previous target of between 64% and 66%. At the end of September, it was 59.6%.
Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@dowjones.com
