EuroBusinessMedia (EBM): Societe Generale, one of the largest European financial services groups, reports results for 2017. Frédéric Oudéa, welcome. You are the CEO of Societe Generale, what are your key takeaways of these 2017 results?
Frédéric Oudéa: First of all, I think that 2017 is a positive step forward in terms of the transformation of our business model and our different activities and fundamentally we have observed good commercial performances across the board.
If we look at the financial performance, the figures, beyond some exceptional items, in particular in the fourth quarter that we had announced, for example the one related to the provisioning for the restructuring of the French retail network or the consequences of the decision by the US government and French government to lower progressively the income tax on the corporates, which also have some negative one-off impacts, when I look at the underlying figures I see a progression of the revenues on the full year, +0.5%, and a progression of the underlying profitability. Because this improvement is also fed by a good control of our costs, we have exceeded our target in terms of cost savings for the 2015 -2017 plan and also a very low cost of risk, which reflects the quality of the portfolio and the quality of the origination of credit.
So, all in all, a very positive year which showed the strength and the quality of the foundations of our activities and which make me confident in the coming years to deliver a sustainable and profitable growth.
EBM: How did your main business lines fare last year?
Frédéric Oudéa: First of all, let’s look at the French retail, and actually we are exactly in line with anticipations, very strong commercial momentum, for example +18% in terms of increase of loan production for corporates, 4,500 new clients for the SG network, but also, for example for Boursorama, an increase by 30% of the number of clients through the global figure above 1.3 million. At the same time a decrease of revenues by 3% because of the impact of the negative rates. But the good thing is that we saw, in the fourth quarter, the beginning of a stabilisation with a decrease of just by 1%. And so we have effectively in mind a stabilisation of the revenues in 2018.
Secondly, when I look at retail outside France, international retail activities and the financial services, the confirmation of the growth potential. It is true for all the geographies; Russia, Europe, Africa and for all activities and with an acceleration of the NBI growth at the end of the fourth quarter +8% versus Q4 of last year.
And third, the wholesale banking and capital markets, at the end of the day when I look at the full year, a performance which is pretty resilient and actually in the market activities a better performance than our peers, we are gaining market share, and in particular in this fourth quarter, a resilience which is good, given still a relatively low volatile environment.
EBM: In 2018 you are actually entering the execution phase of your recently announced strategic plan, what state are you entering 2018 in?
Frédéric Oudéa: Well, clearly our full energy is dedicated to the execution of the first year of our strategic plan and we enter 2018 with the confidence, given overall an environment, both economic and financial environment that we see improving.
First of all, let me just remind you of our objectives. To grow, deliver sustainable growth, profitable growth, which means a series of very precise projects in our different businesses to conquer clients, implement new business models, provide new offerings.
Second, of course, pursue the transformation of our activities with the emergence of the new technologies, the digital technologies which change the behaviours, the needs of clients, and we have to adapt, I think we said at the end of 2017 that we can accelerate and its across the board, that there is a lot of focus, new initiatives, to ensure that we are in line with the expectations of our clients.
Third, pursue the cost discipline, to be able of course to finance the significant investment in the digital transformation thanks to productivity gains and efficiency gains and of course maintain a low cost of risk thanks to the quality of our credit origination.
And fourth is to further strengthen a shared culture and responsibility at the heart of our strategy and at each level of the bank. What does that mean? That means of course carrying on complying with all the rules and the new regulatory framework, but beyond, be very active and contributing effectively to the transformations, such as climate change or the new way of financing the economies. All in all, what we want to be, and remain, is a trusted partner for our clients, which will be able to accompany them in the formidable and positive transformation of our societies and our economies.
EBM: Frédéric Oudéa, CEO of Societe Generale, thank you very much.
Frédéric Oudéa: Thank you.
