Société Générale to sell its British and Swiss private banking subsidiaries for £770m

Societe Generale has sold its British and Swiss private banking divisions for £770m as managers continue to scale back the business.

France’s third-largest listed bank has sold SG Kleinwort Hambros and Société Générale Private Banking Suisse to Union Bancaire Privée (UBP).

The divisions have around £21 billion of assets under management.

This comes after Chief Executive Slawomir Krupa pledged to boost the group’s profits by cutting costs and eliminating parts of the organisation.

Krupa, a Société Générale veteran, took over last year from previous chief executive Frederic Oudea.

In an attempt to turn around the company’s fortunes, it recently shed its equipment finance division, Moroccan bank and other assets in Africa.

It will focus on private banking in France, Luxembourg and Monaco.

For UBP, the deal increases its assets under management to more than 161 billion pounds and strengthens its presence in the UK, the Swiss bank said in a separate statement.

However, SocGen shares fell 1.7 percent in Paris. Like its European peers, it has struggled to regain profitability since the 2008 financial crisis.

The bank also suffered a costly exit from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Investors were left spooked last week after the company revealed that net interest income from its French retail business – the difference between what banks earn on loans and what they pay on deposits – would likely hit £3.3bn in 2024.

This figure is £258m less than previously forecast.

The company has lost more than a fifth of its value in the past year.