PARIS (Reuters) – French bank Societe Generale on Thursday posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on higher revenue in its corporate and investment banking business and lower pandemic-related provisions for bad loans.
France’s third-largest listed lender, after BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole SA, said its net income has nearly doubled in the quarter to 1.6 billion euros from 862 million a year earlier, beating a mean forecast for 952 million in a poll of analysts compiled by Refinitiv.
SocGen also said in a statement it was launching a share buyback programme of around 470 million euros.
(Reporting by Matthieu Protard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
