EBM: Societe Generale, one of the largest European financial services groups, reports results for the third quarter of 2021. Frédéric Oudéa, hello and welcome.
Frédéric Oudéa: Thank you, hello.
EBM: You are the CEO of Societe Generale, so what is your analysis of the numbers for the third quarter of 2021?
Frédéric Oudéa: We are really posting very strong performances in an excellent third quarter, and it’s driven by all our businesses. And it leads to a strong increase, double digit increase, of our revenues. Secondly, the discipline which is maintained on costs which leads to a strong improvement of our growth operating income. Then, as for the previous quarters, the cost of risk remains very low despite a very prudent provisioning. That leads to an exceptional net profit for the group of €1.6 billion for the quarter, and of course, it feeds to the capital which is very strong and which will allow us to have an attractive distribution policy for our shareholders. In particular we are effectively launching the share buy-back programme that we had announced at the beginning of the year, which was approved by the central bank, and which will be completed at year-end, roughly the equivalent of €470 million of share buy-back.
EBM: And more specifically, what were the key trends in your main business lines?
Frédéric Oudéa: Well really across the board, as I’ve said, the performances are very strong. But let’s look at the detail. First, French Retail, in a French economy which is rebounding strongly, we see that, in terms of production of loans, for example on mortgage or investment loans by corporates. But the activity also on the savings side is particularly dynamic and people had collected money and now they try to allocate, to invest this money in investment solutions which will generate yields. It’s also true for insurance activities. For our International Retail, we benefit from the rebound of the economies, an improvement of the sanitary situation, but also the beginning of the normalisation of the monetary policies with a progressive increase in interest rates. So we see the first signs of that with a dynamic activity. It will of course feed further the improvement of the revenue perspective in the coming quarters. Regarding Special Financing, I think we have really spectacular performances, in particular in the fleet management business, where, on one hand, there is the benefit of the structural growth, but also the specific situation of the car market. As you know, with the shortage of new cars, the sale of secondary cars is particularly positive, and it feeds also to the results. And then, regarding our Wholesale businesses, whether it’s market or financing, the same thing in line with the first half, very good performances. On the Capital Market we have an increase in revenues versus last year which was already a pretty good level of activity and a spectacular performance of our financing activities. We are world leader in the financing of the energy transition, the focus is very strong on that, and we benefit from these structural trends in this first half, with a strong activity on the corporate side. So across the broad, I would say, a very satisfying performance of our activities.
EBM: Finally, what are your priorities for the coming quarters?
Frédéric Oudéa: First of all, it is likely that 2021 will be a very, very exceptional year for Societe Generale. And I would say beyond the commercial and financial performances of our activities, we have launched successfully a significant number of strategic projects. I have in mind of course, just a few weeks ago, the detailed announcement of the new bank which would be the result of the full merger of our two networks in France, Crédit du Nord and Societe Generale. I have also in mind Boursorama, with more than 3 million clients, ahead of its objectives. But it’s true also for all our International Retail and Financial Services activities where there is organic growth and we can consider also opportunities in terms of external growth to further enhance certain differentiating assets, such as our fleet management business. So if you wish, we know that next year the environment may be less favourable, but we are benefitting from hard work on our business model and I think these results reflect the strength of our activities. Of course, we have also in mind two major trends which will be at the heart of our strategic plan, enshrined in all our trajectory, the digital transformation with the acceleration after this Covid crisis and the lockdowns and of course, again, everything related to ESG, in particular the energy transition which is going to be at the heart of the transformation of our activities. So, a lot of hard work, but I would say I’m very confident because we are going to build this plan on very solid foundations and it’s very positive for our clients, for our staff and for our shareholders.
EBM: Frédécric Oudéa, thank you.
Frédéric Oudéa: You’re welcome.
