Germany’s Deutsche Bank saw net profit fall 69 percent to 186 million euros (US$245.06 million) in the fourth quarter as the eurozone debt crisis hurt its businesses in investment banking and trading stocks and bonds.
Net profit fell far short of analyst estimates compiled by FactSet of 492.5 million euros and compares unfavorably with 605 million euros in the same quarter last year.
Total net revenues were off 7 percent at 6.89 billion euro.
The results reflected the market turbulence and pessimism in the waning weeks of last year about Europe’s chances of dealing with too much government debt in some countries amid a slowing economy. The crisis has eased somewhat since the quarter ended, with stocks rising and governments finding it easier to borrow.
However, the result was still a downbeat farewell note for CEO Josef Ackermann, who was to preside over his 10th and last annual press conference yesterday before leaving his post on May 26.
The bank said that the debt crisis made investors shy away from risker investments and reduced the market activities it makes its money from. The bank’s corporate and investment bank, where its investment banking and securities trading businesses are housed, saw revenues drop 26 percent in the fourth quarter, to 3.4 billion euros from 4.6 billion euros a year earlier. Income from trading bonds and other debt securities fell 35 percent, while trading in equities such as stocks brought in 38 percent less revenue.
“Current quarter performance was severely impacted by ongoing concerns around the European sovereign crisis and an overall uncertain macroeconomic environment,” the bank said in a statement. “This resulted in significantly reduced client activity across the industry and a decline in volumes across many products.”
European officials are trying to support governments such as Italy and Spain that are struggling to maintain access to affordable borrowing so they can maintain their debt burdens without defaulting. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have had to turn to other eurozone governments and the IMF for bailout loans after fears they might default made it impossible for them to borrow at affordable rates.
Fears a government default might lead to a financial crisis and recession have caused seesaws in stock and bond prices for more than two years.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day