EBM: Societe Generale, one of the largest European financial services groups, reports results for the first quarter of 2022. Frédéric Oudéa, hello and welcome.
Frédéric Oudéa: Hello. Thank you.
EBM: You are the CEO of Societe Generale. What is your assessment of the results for the first quarter, marked of course by the crisis in Ukraine and Russia?
Frédéric Oudéa: Well, we have actually a very strong start of the year, very good results, in line with the dynamic of 2021 despite, as you say, a more uncertain environment and of course with this dramatic crisis in Ukraine. It translates into a very strong dynamic of our revenues, + 16% across the board in all businesses. Good management of the costs. Good management of the cost of risk, even if we are provisioning for our Russian exposure. All in, it means an underlying net profit of €1.6 billion with a strong increase, +20% compared with last year. So very good results. The capital base is also very solid despite the fact that we also have the impact actually of the Russian crisis also in our capital. And it was an intense quarter because beyond delivering on these results and accompanying our clients, we had to deal with the Russian crisis. We announced the disposal of our Russian subsidiary, Rosbank. We had to deal with the immediate impacts of the crisis, managing our risk, but we decided also to exit the market in an orderly and effective way, selling Rosbank to Interros Capital. So we were very busy, but a very successful start of the year.
EBM: More specifically, what were the key drivers of your main businesses?
Frédéric Oudéa: I’m going to say again across the group it’s a very strong commercial dynamic. Let’s start with the French Retail. Good loan production, high level of commissions, both financial and services, a very strong quarter. It’s true also for International Retail in Europe and Africa, a good dynamic there. Particularly strong results of Financial Services and Insurance. May I highlight in particular the performance of our Fleet Management business, ALD, which is growing but also benefiting from very good results on the sale of used cars on a car market which is still disturbed. And of course with GBIS which has a spectacular performance, our Wholesale and Capital Market activities, both in Capital Markets and in Financing with revenues growing by 20%. So it’s really across the board a very strong performance. We accompany our clients, we are a trusted partner and it’s very positive, as I’ve said, across all our businesses.
EBM: What progress did you make on your strategic projects?
Frédéric Oudéa: The great satisfaction at the start of the year is the progress on all our strategic projects. On time. We are building a new business model, more resilient, more balanced, which will offer profitable growth in the long term. Let’s start with the signing of the framework agreement between ALD and LeasePlan for the acquisition of LeasePlan to build a world leader in the mobility sector. Second, we have signed the final agreement between Boursorama and ING to offer an alternative banking solution to the clients of ING, as you know ING is leaving the retail market in France. Third, the merger of our two French networks. We announced the architecture, the brand architecture, which is very consistent with the organisation which wants to be more local, more regional and we are very happy with this new architecture. And we also signed, with all our trade unions, a new agreement to accompany, from a social perspective, the restructuring and the synergies of this merger. Eventually, on the ESG, we are announcing new ambitions. We have pursued our trajectory to enshrine ESG in all the strategies of our businesses, we announce a new objective, €300 billion of sustainable finance between 2022 and 2025, a cocktail of financing through the balance sheet, and of points that we will arrange and lead with a top leading role. So as you can see, very good progress on all these strategic fronts.
EBM: Finally, what are your priorities for the coming quarters?
Frédéric Oudéa: If I may, let’s carry on. We have demonstrated the capacity to move ahead with our strategic project as well as deliver good performances. It’s our objective for 2022. And 2022 is a pivotal year in terms of execution. If we think May 2023 we will have a new retail bank in France, the result of this merger which will take place from a legal perspective beginning of next year. Then we will migrate the IT in the first half of 2023. Boursorama will have between 4 and 4.5 million clients in France and we will think about new areas for its development, new ambition for its development. We will have this new company between ALD and LeasePlan up and running, with of course the integration to come. We will pursue the dynamic in International Retail and of course GBIS. And regarding GBIS the idea is really to pursue the accompaniment of our clients in the transformation of their business model, in the way they want to contribute to a better world, and of course we think we can deliver very strong results despite a more volatile and uncertain environment. So again, to simplify, let’s carry on with the same energy, knowing that we have to be realistic, we should take into account the risk, the geopolitical, the economic and the financial risk of a more uncertain world.
EBM: Frédéric Oudéa, thank you
Frédéric Oudéa: You’re welcome.
