Societe Generale to offload subsidiary to Cameroon
Gdansk —Societe Generale has agreed to sell its Cameroon subsidiary to the State of Cameroon, the France-based international banking group said on Tuesday.
The sale of Societe Generale Cameroun, the value of which was not disclosed, will cover more than 58% shares in the subsidiary, pushing the stake held by Cameroon to 83.7%.
The deal, expected to close by the end of 2025, would have a positive affect of about six basis points on the group’s CET1 ratio, which stood at 13.4% at the end of the first quarter, Societe Generale said. A CET1 ratio measures a bank’s liquidity to its risk exposure. Reuters
BoE delays rules governing banks’ trading activities
London — Britain’s central bank on Tuesday delayed implementing a key part of new, global rules governing banks’ trading activities by a year to 2028, as it waits for clarity on what other jurisdictions, including the US, will do.
As part of a series of changes unveiled to help British lenders, the Bank of England (BoE) also announced an easing of capital requirements for mid-sized banks, a change that had been expected.
The announcements follow calls from the Labour government for regulators to replace a risk-averse stance with one that supports financial sector growth. UK finance minister Rachel Reeves on Tuesday also announced a plan to rein in regulators and get more savers investing in shares to boost the financial services industry and the economy.
The BoE said it would stick with a January 2027 implementation date for most of the Basel 3.1 rules but that it would postpone part of the rules known as Fundamental Review of the Trading Book to 2028. Reuters
EU warns Italy over decree for UniCredit’s Banco bid
Rome — The European Commission can order Italy to withdraw the conditions it has set to clear UniCredit’s bid for Banco BPM, the text of a letter sent to the Rome government showed on Tuesday.
Brussels said on Monday it had sent the letter to challenge a decree issued by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on April 18 which set tough terms for the deal through the government’s so-called “golden power” regulation aimed at shielding strategic assets.
Italy invoked national security reasons for its decision to use the golden power in the case of the UniCredit-BPM bid.
The commission said Italy had breached EU rules and gave the government 20 working days to reply to its objections, according to the letter seen by Reuters. Reuters
Renault lowers guidance as it names Duncan Minto
Paris — Renault named its finance chief, Duncan Minto, as interim CEO on Tuesday, and said it would step up cost-cutting measures after cutting its forecast for full year operating margins after a worse than expected performance in June.
Renault said it now aimed to achieve a full year operating margin of 6.5% compared with more than 7% previously announced. And it aims for free cash flow of €1bn-€1.5bn, versus more than €2bn previously.
It said these results had been affected by a lower than anticipated performance in June, including volumes slightly lower than expected, an underperformance of the light commercial vehicle business in a sharply declining market in Europe and a level of receivables affected by billing timing differences.
Minto, who has been in the Renault group since 1997, has taken over running the company from Tuesday as it searches for a permanent replacement for Luca de Meo who resigned suddenly last month to join luxury group Kering.
Minto will ensure the day-to-day management of the company alongside Jean-Dominique Senard, who will hold the position of chair, Renault said. Reuters
Citigroup reports higher quarterly revenue, profit
New York Citigroup’s profit rose in the second quarter as its traders brought in a windfall from turbulent markets.
The third-largest US lender’s net income was $4bn, or $1.96 per share, in the three months ended June 30, it said on Tuesday. Total net income rose 25% from a year earlier.
Stocks and bonds have whipsawed since April, when US President Donald Trump stunned markets by announcing sweeping tariffs against major trading partners. Volatility tends to help Wall Street trading desks as clients rush to adjust their portfolios.
Citi’s revenue rose 8% in the quarter from a year earlier to $21.7bn, notching second-quarter records for its services, wealth and US personal banking businesses. Markets revenue jumped 16% to $5.9bn. Reuters
Standard Chartered to offer crypto services in UK
Hong Kong Standard Chartered will allow institutional clients to trade bitcoin and Ether through its UK branch, the bank said on Tuesday, becoming what it said was the first global systemically important bank to offer such crypto services.
Some financial institutions have said they are seeing more client demand for crypto products as the price of bitcoin hits record highs, helped by US President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance.
Institutional clients around the world, including corporates, investors and asset managers, will be able to conduct spot crypto trading through Standard Chartered’s existing platforms, and will soon be offered non-deliverable forwards trading, the bank said in a statement. Reuters
Vicenne’s IPO garners huge support in Casablanca
Rabat The initial public offering (IPO) of Moroccan healthcare company Vicenne was oversubscribed 64 times, the Casablanca stock exchange said on Tuesday.
The offering, the first IPO this year, attracted more than 32- billion dirhams ($3.5bn) in demand for 500-million dirhams in shares. The IPO drew 37,674 investors, including more than 36,000 individual investors from 49 different nationalities. Reuters
China’s smartphone shipments fall 4%, Huawei leads
Beijing — China’s smartphone shipments dropped by 4.0% Y/Y in the second quarter, the International Data Corporation (IDC) said on Tuesday.
Apple’s market share in China was at 13.9%, while Huawei’s was at 18.1% in Q2, according to IDC.
Huawei was the top vendor in the country in terms of market share, followed by vivo at 17.3%, OPPO at 15.5% and Xiaomi at 15.1% share, IDC said. Reuters
Geely to gobble up last chunk of Zeekr for $2.40bn
Bengaluru — Chinese automaker Geely Automobile will acquire the chunk of electric-vehicle maker Zeekr that it does not already own for $2.40bn, the companies said in separate statements on Tuesday.
Geely is offering $2.687 for every share for the 892.7-million units it does not already own in Zeekr. The company currently holds a 62.8% stake in Zeekr, according to a filing with the exchange.
The per American depositary share offer values Zeekr at $6.83bn.
The deal comes months after Geely tried to privatise the electric vehicle maker, saying it wanted to consolidate its business to counter intensifying competition. Reuters
Google in world’s largest corporate clean power pact
New York — Google has agreed to secure as much as 3 gigawatts of US hydropower in the world’s largest corporate clean power pact for hydroelectricity, the company said on Tuesday, as Big Tech pursues the expansion of energy-hungry data centres.
The deal between Google and Brookfield Asset Management includes initial 20-year power purchase agreements, totalling $3bn, for electricity generated from two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania.
The tech giant will also invest $25bn in data centres across Pennsylvania and neighbouring states over the next two years, Semafor reported on Tuesday.
The technology industry is intensifying the hunt for huge amounts of clean electricity to power data centres needed for artificial intelligence and cloud computing, which has driven US power consumption to record highs after nearly two decades of stagnation. Reuters
JPMorgan raises 2025 net interest income forecast
Bengaluru — JPMorgan Chase raised its net interest income forecast for 2025 after strong performance in its investment banking and trading divisions helped it surpass profit expectations for the second quarter.
The bank now expects $95.5bn of NII, or the difference between what it earns on loans and pays out on deposits, compared with an earlier estimate of $94.5bn.
“The US economy remained resilient in the quarter. The finalisation of tax reform and potential deregulation are positive for the economic outlook,” CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement.
However, he highlighted that significant risks persist, including from tariffs and trade uncertainty, worsening geopolitical conditions, high fiscal deficits and elevated asset prices. Reuters
Wells Fargo’s profit rises, shares drop 2.7%
Bengaluru — Wells Fargo’s profit rose in the second quarter as it set aside less money to shield for potential bad loans.
Shares of the San Francisco, California-based bank fell 2.7% in premarket trading as the lender cut its expectation for annual interest income.
Wells Fargo expects its interest income to be roughly in line with 2024 level of $47.7bn, it said. In April, the bank had forecast NII growth would be at the low end of the 1% to 3% range.
Analysts and investors were sceptical about Wells Fargo’s ability to meet its targets for interest income after a slow start to 2025. Reuters
Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales jump 24%
Gdansk — Global sales of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles jumped 24% in June from a year ago, as a switch to electric vehicles maintained momentum in China and Europe, market research firm Rho Motion said on Tuesday.
Still, EV sales in the US were down 1% in the month and will struggle to pick up this year, after President Donald Trump’s spending bill cut tax credits sooner than anticipated, said Rho Motion data manager Charles Lester.
North America, also weighed by slowing sales in Canada, lagged for the first time behind the “rest of the world” countries, which include emerging markets in Southeast Asia and South and Central America, Lester said. Reuters
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