By Elena Vardon

Credit Agricole S.A. posted an increase in its third-quarter profit as sustained activity across its business lines and higher customer numbers supported its income.

The French lender on Thursday reported that it made 1.84 billion euros ($2.14 billion) in net profit for the three months ended Sept. 31, up 10% compared with the same period a year prior.

Revenue grew 5.6% to 6.85 billion euros driven by the momentum in its corporate and investment bank and in its specialized financial-services unit, while income from its French retail bank and from its asset-gathering division--which includes its insurance operations--were stable.

Activity was particularly strong in its retail divisions where the bank saw dynamic loan growth--driven by mortgages and corporate clients in France--as well as rising customer deposits and inflows into investment products, finance chief Clotilde L'Angevin said in a call with reporters.

Analysts had penciled in a net profit at 1.625 billion euros on revenue of 6.80 billion euros, according to a Visible Alpha poll.

Credit Agricole S.A. is the listed vehicle of the 39 French regional banks which make up Credit Agricole Group. But beyond its large footprint in France, the bank has built up a presence in Italy, a market where it makes 15% of its revenues, via acquisitions dating back three decades.

In recent months, the lender was pulled into the wave of deals playing out in Italy's crowded banking sector after a surprise takeover bid on Banco BPM--a key ally for Credit Agricole--was launched and then abandoned by UniCredit.

The French bank doubled the stake in its peer to just under 20% throughout the process in a bid to protect its consumer credit and insurance agreements and cement its role as an industrial partner. The positive revaluation of this holding given the rally in BPM's shares in the quarter added 245 million euros to Credit Agricole's top line, it said.

While management had previously said that Credit Agricole has no plans to seek full control of BPM, Chief Executive Olivier Gavalda told reporters that the bank is "attentive to everything that might happen and open to all scenarios."

Its asset manager Amundi--which is separately listed in Paris--also has important ties to Italy, namely through a distribution partnership with UniCredit. Uncertainty around the future of the relationship once the contract expires in mid-2027 cast a shadow on Amundi's quarterly update earlier this week after it said that its upcoming strategic mid-term plan will take into account the possibility that the partnership won't be renewed.

"We are very confident [that] life will not stop just at the partnership with UniCredit," Gavalda said, pointing to the size of Amundi and the projects that Credit Agricole has in the pipeline which will be outlined at an investor day on Nov. 18.

Its common Tier 1 equity ratio--a measure of balance-sheet strength--stood at 11.7% at the end of the quarter. The bank's key profitability metric, return on tangible equity, reached 15.4% for the first nine months of the year.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 30, 2025 02:44 ET (06:44 GMT)

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