France's largest bank BNP Paribas said today its first quarter net profit rose 9.6% to €2.86 billion, boosted by a large asset sale gain.
Analysts had forecast a net profit of €2.66 billion for the three months to the end of March.
The bank said the sale of a near 29% stake in investment fund Klepierre brought in €1.5 billion.
Excluding exceptional items, first quarter net profit came to €2.03 billion, down 22%, it said.
BNP Paribas said it continued to reduce its holdings of government bonds - notably of struggling euro zone members Greek, Ireland and Portugal debt - during the period but still had to take a charge of €142m on its exposure.
The lender also cut its French government bond holdings by 25% to €10.3 billion.
