(Bloomberg) — BNP Paribas SA relied on its investment banking and asset management units to improve third-quarter results as the lending business continues to face headwinds .

Equity trading revenue rose 13% from a year earlier and fixed income revenue rose 12%, with the former lagging analysts’ estimates and the latter beating them. . This performance contributed to increasing the group’s net profit by 7.8%, largely in line with expectations.

CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe has used his excess cash to bolster stock trading in recent years, taking back businesses and client relationships that rivals including Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse were losing. With the two trading businesses roughly balanced, it is now building the smallest of BNP’s three operating units, the insurance and asset management arm.

In his biggest purchase as CEO, Bonnafe agreed in August to buy Axa SA’s asset management unit to create one of Europe’s largest fund managers. The proposed deal, worth 5.1 billion euros ($5.5 billion), would allow Bonnafe to compete with Europe’s leading asset manager, Amundi SA.

Even before the finalization of the buyout, expected in the middle of next year, asset management revenues increased by 7.9% in the third quarter, with new money inflows pushing up assets under management. Wealth management, another business Bonnafe is trying to expand with targeted acquisitions such as HSBC Holdings Plc’s private banking operations in Germany, saw its revenue decline slightly.

A larger weak spot has been the Commercial, Personal Banking & Services unit, which combines retail operations and specialty businesses such as auto leasing. The unit’s turnover fell 2.6%, with BNP citing a “normalization of used car prices” as a negative impact.

Other unfavorable factors include inflation hedges, the flight of Belgian deposits to government bonds and the decision of the European Central Bank to no longer remunerate mandatory reserves. These factors prompted the BNP to revise downwards some of its objectives in February. Their impact has, however, lessened, with the third quarter seeing an impact of only €63 million, less than half of what it was in the previous period.

However, the difficulties encountered by BNP’s largest unit in terms of turnover weighed on the stock. Shares are up 4.7% this year, lagging the broader European financial sector.

BNP confirmed its objectives for the whole year, in particular that of increasing its profit to more than 11.2 billion euros. The group indicated that it would update its medium-term outlook when publishing its annual results, to take into account “the redeployment of capital”.

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