SocGen shares slide on management reshuffle and weak revenues

By Maya Nikolaeva and Matthieu Protard

PARIS (Reuters) - SocGen shares dropped on Friday after France's third-biggest bank announced a management reshuffle that surprised investors and reported weaker investment bank earnings.

The shake-up comes several weeks after the departure of a deputy chief executive in charge of investment banking operations and several months after it crafted a new three year plan, aimed at boosting returns and protecting dividends.

The reshuffle, that came on Thursday evening, sees the re-appointment of chief executive Frederic Oudea for a new four-year term and the set up of a new top management team of four deputy chief executives.

The new team will be under pressure to boost profitability in the face of tougher regulation and client demand for increasing investment in new technologies at a time when French retail banking revenues decline and low volatility hurts trading activities.

"How come the replacement of the head of investment banking ends with a full re-shuffle of operating management just 6 months after the Investor day?" analysts at Jefferies said in a note.

SocGen shares were down 6.3 percent in early session trading, the worst performer in the French equities index.

SocGen reported on Friday a 14 percent rise in first-quarter net income to 850 million euros, that came above analysts' estimates of 821 million euros, according to a Reuters poll of 5 analysts.

However, SocGen's quarterly revenue came in weaker than expected, falling 2.8 percent to 6.29 billion euros, compared to 6.48 billion expected by analysts.

Its corporate and investment bank was a weak spot with revenue down 13.4 percent and net income falling 56.9 percent, impacted by a "strong negative forex effect".

Equity trading also declined despite a broad improvement in this area across other international banks, and in contrast to its French peer BNP Paribas, whose business is traditionally skewed to fixed income activities in Europe.

SocGen said this "this lower performance in relation to the industry can be attributed to our business mix, which is more geared towards structured products, and our geographical mix, which is more focused on Europe".

Under its new three-year plan, SocGen aims to improve the return on net equity at its investment banking arm to 14 percent from 10.8 percent it had in 2017, when revenues fell on the back of low market volatility.

"The results ... are generally in line with our strategic ambitions," chief executive Frederic Oudea said in a statement.

"With a renewed General Management team, the group is more confident than ever of its ability to successfully implement all the current transformation projects and meet its strategic and financial objectives," added Oudea.

The bank kept litigation provisions stable at 2.3 billion euros ($2.75 billion) and said a final agreement with relevant authorities was expected in the coming days or weeks.

($1 = 0.8358 euros)

(Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva and Matthieu Protard; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Elaine Hardcastle)