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Bloomberg
BNP Paribas SA posted trading revenue that trounced
its European rivals, helping drive a surprise increase in first-quarter profit.
Revenue at the global-markets division climbed 33 percent from a year earlier to 1.75 billion euros ($1.9 billion), the Paris-based bank said Wednesday. Net income rose 4.4 percent to 1.89 billion euros, topping the 1.5 billion-euro average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Jean-Laurent Bonnafe is one of few European banking bosses targeting growth from his trading business, aiming to increase global-markets revenue by about 5 percent annually through 2020. At BNP’s big European peers dollar revenue from trading stocks and bonds fell a combined 6 percent in the quarter.
“We are in a position to grow our business,†BNP Paribas Chief Financial Officer Lars Machenil said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
“They are moving in the right direction,†said Robert Jakobsen, an analyst at Jyske Bank AS in Silkeborg, Denmark, who has a buy rating on the stock. “It’s one of the strongest results we have seen among banks in fixed income and there are strong earnings improvements in all divisions.â€