French bank Societe Generale reported a better-than-expected 22% slide in first-quarter net income on Friday, as profits on equity derivative sales offset more weakness at its retail bank and in fixed-income trading.
France's third-biggest listed lender, whose CEO Slawomir Krupa is seeking to end several years of lackluster performance and trim costs, said group net income over the first three months of the year was 680 million euros, down 22% from a year earlier.
This beat the 463 million-euro average of 15 analyst estimates compiled by the company. Sales slipped 0.4% to 6.65 billion euros, above the 6.46 billion-euro analyst average estimate.