France's second largest listed bank by market value, Societe Generale, announced on Thursday lower than anticipated first quarter results due to a charge tied to its own debt and provisions resulting from political turmoil in the Middle East.
 
Group net profit for the quarter fell 13.8 percent to €916m from €1.063 the year before. The average estimate given in a recent poll of analysts was €1.06bn.
 
Revenue increased by 7.7 percent to €6.62bn but was also below expectations of €6.73bn with earnings up 9.8 percent as French consumer and investment banking earnings improved on lower bad loan provisions.
 
Frederic Oudea, the group's chairman and CEO, said: “The Q1 results provide further evidence of the robustness of the Group's businesses and their ability to grow in an uncertain international, political, economic and financial environment. Drawing on its substantial capital-generating capacity, the group continued to systematically realign its operations to the new regulatory environment and implement its resolutely customer-focused strategy, based on a rigorous allocation of its financial resources.