French banking group Société Générale posted better-than-expected financial results yesterday for the second quarter of 2025.

Société Générale's group net income climbed by 30.6 per cent reaching €1.45 billion ($1.66 billion) for the second quarter of 2025, while revenue grew 1.6 per cent to €6.8 billion, beating analysts expectations. This equates to a return on tangible equity (ROTE) of 9.7 per cent.

The bank, which has a significant presence in Asia, said it has raised its profitability target for 2025 after stronger-than-expected second-quarter results, supported by strong growth from its French retail bank. 

In the first half of the year, group net income stood at €3,061 million, equating to a ROTE of 10.3 per cent, higher than the target set for 2025 of >8 per cent. Considering the performance in the first half of 2025, the group said it is now targeting a ROTE of around 9 per cent in 2025.

Operating income of €2.11 billion grew 21.8 per cent from €1.73 billion a year ago.

Net banking income stood at €6.8 billion, up 1.6 per cent on 2024 levels and 7.1 per cent excluding asset disposals. Private banking also saw its assets under management grow by 6 per cent in the second quarter to €132 billion compared with the previous year. Net asset inflows totalled €2.3 billion in the second quarter, with assets gathering apace standing at 6 per cent in the first half of 2025.

Net profits from other assets reached €75 million in the second quarter, mainly related to the accounting impacts resulting from the sale of Société Générale Burkina Faso, completed in June 2025.

There was also a first distribution of excess capital in the form of an additional share buy-back of €1 billion, to be launched on August 2025.

For the first half of 2025, an interim dividend of €0.611 per share will be paid on 9 October 2025. “We are once again reporting strong results this quarter with a solid commercial and financial performance in all our businesses,” Slawomir Krupa, group chief executive officer, said. “Revenue growth, cost reduction, cost income ratio and profitability improvement: we are ahead of all our annual targets for the first half of the year, and we have revised them upwards for the full year 2025.”

“With a high capital ratio, well above our target, we decided to provide an additional distribution to shareholders in the form of a share buy-back and to introduce an interim dividend for the first half of 2025,” he added.

The group also announced the composition of a Scientific Advisory Council this quarter. The role of this body is to provide the general management with ESG insights, taking a science-based approach to the key emerging trends that will influence the economic environment and the group’s activities in the future.