LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - France's Societe Generale posted a 26% drop in first-quarter net income on Friday as it pushes ahead with its recently-announced restructuring amid challenging market conditions.
In the three months to the end of March, reported net income fell to €631m from €850m in the first quarter of 2018, missing analysts' expectations of around €637m. Revenues came in at €6.19bn, down 1.6% from Q118.

However, the bank's Common Equity Tier 1 ratio improved by 55 basis points to 11.7%.

SocGen, which unveiled its restructuring plan last month, said it expects restructuring costs of around €250m to €300m, which will be recognised in 2019.

Chief executive officer Fréderic Oudéa said the company has already benefited in the first quarter from the initial effects of the implementation of the measures announced at the time of the 2018 full-year results.

"We continued with the transformation of French Retail Banking, provided further evidence of the robust momentum in International Retail Banking & Financial Services and demonstrated Global Banking & Investor Solutions' ability to rapidly adapt, with an already tangible reduction in risk-weighted assets which, combined with the finalisation of five disposals, has resulted in a substantial increase in the level of our capital," he said.

"We are continuing to steadily implement our refocusing programme, with the announcement this morning of the disposal of our SKB subsidiary in Slovenia. As a result of our determined actions, we saw a substantial increase in CET1 ratio in Q1 19, strengthening our ability to achieve the 12% CET1 ratio target as soon as possible."

He also put the "solid results" down to "good risk management and the controlled development" of its costs, which Oudea said will continue with the new cost-saving measures recently introduced.

At 0930 BST, the shares were up 3.5% to €29.39.

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