SocGen joins euro banking rout as profits take another beating
PROFITS plunged at French bank Societe Generale as the bank was hit by losses on asset sales, a hybrid debt buyback and writedowns on the value of US and Russian units over the second quarter, it reported yesterday, as well as wider damage from the Eurozone crisis.
Second quarter profits fell 42 per cent to €433m (£341.2m), and followed a poor first quarter performance in which it was hit by Greek sovereign debt writedowns.
However, the bank did manage to cut costs by six per cent on the year, including by cutting 880 positions in the corporate and investment banking arms and 2,100 at the Russian Rosbank arm.
Furthermore it also reported improving capital levels, claiming to be on target to reach a Basel III core tier one ratio of between nine and 9.5 per cent by the end of 2013.
As a result shares rose 0.53 per cent to €18.1 by the end of the day.