Société Générale Shows Generosity After Posting Record Annual Profit
Announcing record net profit for 2025 this morning, Société Générale has announced a significant increase in its total shareholder distribution, along with an upward revision of its return on tangible equity (ROTE) target for 2026.
The banking group reported a net income, group share of €6bn for 2025, up 43%, with a ROTE of 10.2% and 9.6% excluding net gains on other assets, both above its annual target of around 9%.
This growth in annual profits is supported by a cost of risk at 26bp, at the lower end of its 2025 target range of 25-to-30 basis points, and an efficiency ratio at 63.6%, below the annual target (less than 65%).
The latter improved by 5.4 points thanks to both a 2% reduction in costs (excluding asset disposals) and record revenues up 6.8% to €27.3bn (excluding asset disposals), performances which also exceeded its annual targets.
On this basis, Société Générale is proposing an ordinary distribution for 2025 of nearly €2.68bn, including a dividend of €1.61 per share (with a remaining balance of €1 yet to be paid) and a share buyback program of €1.46bn to be launched on February 9.
With the two exceptional distributions in the form of two additional share buyback programs launched in 2025, the group's total distribution for the past year amounts to €4.68bn, up 169%.
Finally, the bank has revised its targets for 2026, now expecting ROTE of above 10%, an efficiency ratio below 60%, with revenue growth above 2% and a cost reduction of around 3%.
Société Générale is one of the largest French banking groups. Net interest income breaks down by activity as follows:
- financing and investment banking (37.7%): specialized financing (for acquisitions, projects, etc.), activity on the stock, interest rate, currency exchange, and raw material markets, brokerage operations, merger-acquisition consulting, commercial banking activities, etc.;
- retail banking in France (33.4%; SG). The group also develops asset management and private banking activities (EUR 137 billion in assets under management in 2025), and provides insurance services, online banking and online brokerage services (Boursorama Banque) as well as an economic and financial information Website (boursorama.com);
- provision of international specialized financial and insurance services (15.6%): consumer loan, leasing, management of car fleets, professional equipment financing and insurance;
- international retail banking (13.3%).
At the end of 2025, Société Générale managed EUR 519.8 billion in current deposits and EUR 454.5 billion in current credits.
Net interest income is distributed geographically as follows: France (44.4%), Europe (34.9%), the Americas (10.2%), Asia and Oceania (5.6%) and Africa (4.9%).
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