The private banking arm of Societe Generale logged a 1.5 per cent rise in assets under management at the end of December, 2012, compared with a year ago, with AuM standing at €86.1 billion (around $115.8 billion).

The private banking arm of Societe Generale logged a 1.5 per cent rise in assets under management at the end of December 2012, compared with a year before, with AuM standing at €86.1 billion (around $115.8 billion), the French banking group announced today.

The rise in assets included an inflow of €1.0 billion, a market effect of €2.6 billion, a negative foreign exchange impact of €400 million and a negative ”structure” effect of €2.0 billion, the bank said.

Against a backdrop of deleveraging, partially offset by margins holding up well, the business line’s revenues fell by 2.4 per cent year-on-year to €757 million. Operating expenses declined by -1.3 per cent to €624 million amid cost-saving measures.

SocGen said that gross operating income was a total of €133 million in 2012 (vs €143 million in 2011). The business line’s contribution to group net income amounted to €93 million vs €115 million in 2011. Fourth-quarter revenues were €202 million, up by 26.7 per cent from the same period a year ago.

Group results

For the whole of Societe Generale, the firm logged group net income of €774 million in 2012, a 67.5 per cent slump from a year earlier; net banking income - on a like-for-like basis -  fell 9.9 per cent in 2012 to €23.11 billion from the level in 2011. Underlying group net income was €3.368 billion.

Explaining the results in detail, the bank said the accounting impact on net banking income of the revaluation of the group’s own financial liabilities was -€1.255 billion last year, reflecting tightening financing spreads in the banking sector during the year.

The banking group said last year saw the completion of deleveraging by its corporate and investment banking arm: the firm has disposed of €16 billion of loan portfolio assets since end-June 2011; it has also continued to dispose of legacy assets, shedding €19 billion of such assets over the past 18 months. Among moves was the sale of Greek subsidiary Geniki.

The Paris-listed banking giant had a Core Tier 1 bank capital ratio of 10.7 per cent at the end of 2012.