ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 19 MAY 2015 Appointments Barbara DALIBARD A telecommunications specialist, Barbara Dalibard began her career with France Télécom in 1982. In 1998, she became Managing Director of one of Alcatel-Lucent’s subsidiaries, Alcanet International. She then returned to Orange (formerly France Télécom) with responsibility for the “business” market and served as Vice-President of Orange Business Services. In 2010, Mrs Dalibard joined SNCF, where in 2014 she became Managing Director of travellers for the SNCF group. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Eurostar International Limited and of the Supervisory Board of Michelin. She was elected by the General Meeting with 99.10% of the votes and sits on the Board as an Independent Director. Gérard MESTRALLET After joining Compagnie Financière de Suez early in his career and later becoming Executive Director of Societe Generale in Belgium, Gérard Mestrallet became Chairman and CEO of Compagnie de Suez in 1995, Chairman of the Management Board at Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux in June 1997 and then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Suez in 2001. He has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GDF Suez since 2008. President of Paris Europlace, the professional body which promotes Paris as an international financial centre, Mr Mestrallet also serves as Chairman of the Board of Suez Environnement and member of the Siemens AG Supervisory Board. He was elected with 75.96% of the vote and sits on the Board as an Independent Director. LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS_JUNE 2015 | 5 increasing our synergies. As we develop our areas of activity, we plan to ensure the right balance for our business lines and our presence in those geographical locations where we can make a difference and deliver value added. We plan to increase synergies that will promote additional growth, driven by sharing the same customer base among the different business lines. This will allow us to offer a full range of services to our clients: our ‘bancassurance’ business and the new private banking business model are good examples. In 2014, 28% of Group revenue was due to drawing on our synergies, well above the rate in 2011. Lastly, Societe Generale will make every effort to generate long-term profitability with a return on equity of 10%, which requires a high quality of performance and disciplined cost and risk management. Keeping our digital advantage The impact of digital technologies is far-reaching, especially for retail banking. The behaviour of our clients is changing and now many basic services are undertaken at a distance: 95% of bank transfers are now made via the Internet or on mobile device. Always within reach, mobile phones make possible an almost continuous relationship with our clients. Our branches will not disappear, but in the future there will be fewer of them. In the long term, the transition to digital constitutes the main challenge facing banks in Europe. More than ever before, we must continue to innovate and maintain our lead. For our clients, we have just launched a newer, simpler banking app, which is more user-friendly and more personalised. Within the Group, we are rolling out our “Digital for All” programme, which includes access to new, collaborative IT tools and the distribution of 90,000 tablet computers to our employees. Likewise, the buy-out of the minority shareholders of Boursorama is in line with this strategy. Our subsidiary is the online banking leader in France and offers a full range of digital services and is recording impressive growth: at the end of March of this year, Boursorama had 650,000 clients compared to 600,000 at the end of December and we are aiming for 1.5 million by 2020. Outlook for 2015 Our priorities for 2015 are to carry on with what we have put in place so far and to build for the future. We plan to keep up the pace of transformation, a process which we began eight years ago. Our goal is to continue to generate profitable growth. Turning to retail banking in France, we plan to capitalise on the dynamism of our networks to capture new clients and develop more synergies. International Retail Banking & Financial Services will continue to improve its financial performance. Finally, our goal for Global Banking and Investor Solutions is to achieve its fourth year of profitable growth, with, in particular, the continued integration of its brokerage business, Newedge. Discipline and vigilance in the areas of cost control and risk management are strategic elements for remaining competitive and generating satisfactory profitability. At the same time, we hope to keep our Core Tier One capital ratio strong at 10% or more. Furthermore, we will continue to maintain a balance between funding our growth and paying dividends: 2014’s dividend of €1.20 corresponded to a payout rate of 40%, which we hope to raise to 50% in 2015 and 2016. The banking sector has already experienced radical transformation and the process is not over. Societe Generale will continue to adapt, drawing on the strength of its teams and its values: Team Spirit, Innovation, Responsibility and Commitment.
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