PARIS (Reuters) – Crédit Agricole SA reported on Wednesday records records and higher expectations for its fourth quarter, driven by its insurance and asset management activities as well as its financing and investment bank ( BFI) Yet less dynamic than certain competitors.
The second French bank in terms of market capitalization published a net profit share of the group of 1.69 billion euros, up 27% over a year and higher than the consensus of analysts compiled by the group which appeared at 1.32 billion euros.
The net banking product increased by 17% to 7.1 billion euros, above the average estimate of analysts of 6.53 billion euros.
The last quarter enabled the banking group to record a record net bank product of 27.2 billion euros in 2024 and a net profit from the record group of 7.1 billion euros.
RBC analysts praised a “series of solid results” in a note addressed to their customers.
At the Paris Stock Exchange, the Crédit Agricole title took 2.03% at 14.85 euros at 08:38 GMT, while the CAC 40 ceded 0.29% at the same time.
Amundi, the group’s asset management subsidiary and the first European asset manager, saw its sales increase by 14.5% over a year.
The net banking product of the financing and investment bank (BFI) increased by 7.7% in the fourth quarter to reach a record level 1.57 billion euros, however a lower increase than certain competitors.
Revenues from rate trading, currency and raw materials (FICC), for example, increased by 17% over the period, underperforming BNP Paribas and below the average increase of 26% over one year recorded by large Wall Street banking groups according to Jefferies.
The net bank insurance product increased by 37.1% over a year thanks to a favorable basic effect, dynamic activity and the increase in outstanding. The insurance net profit from the insurance group is 418 million euros, up 24.5%.
Objectives achieved in advance
Carried by record profits, some leaders of European banks landed as a market consolidator, particularly in Italy, second market for Crédit Agricole behind France.
The outgoing director general, Philippe Brassac, said that the French bank did not intend to buy the third largest Italian lender, Banco BPM, the subject of an unsolicited purchase offer from Unicredit , after having increased his participation in the Italian bank in December to 15.1%.
“The only motivation of the group to increase their participation in Banco BPM is to defend the interests of the bank,” said Philippe Brassac.
“Key questions for Crédit Agricole remain Italian development plans as well as the new objectives of the MTP (medium -term plan) and the ambitions of the new director general (Olivier Gavalda),” said Barclays in a note.
Crédit Agricole became the main Investor of Banco BPM in 2022, shortly after a previous aborted BPM buyout at Unicredit. Amundi also has a distribution contract with Unicredit which expires in 2027.
SAS Rue La Boétie, the Crédit Agricole control entity, said in a separate statement its intention to buy up to 500 million euros in the bank’s shares by the end of the third quarter. The entity currently holds 62.76% of agricultural credit.
Crédit Agricole confirmed that it has achieved the financial objectives of its strategic plan by 2025 and indicated that it will offer a dividend of 1.10 euros per share for 2024.
(Written by Mathieu Rosemain; Bertrand de Meyer, edited by Kate Entringer)
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