German giant Deutsche Bank AG yesterday posted its first annual profit in six years, boosted by strong gains at its investment banking division.
Net profit in the final quarter of last year came in at 51 million euros (US$61.2 million) and 113 million euros for the full year.
The bank nevertheless set aside close to 1.8 billion euros in provisions to cope with the risk of credit losses — about 2.5 times more than in 2019, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: Bloomberg
Net revenue at its investment bank last year rose 32 percent to 9.3 billion euros.
Profit before tax for the division reached 3.2 billion euros, six times that of 2019.
Cheering the results, Deutsche Bank chief executive officer Christian Sewing said: “In the most important year of our transformation, we were able to more than offset transformation-related effects and elevated credit provisions despite the global pandemic.”
The group lost 5.72 billion euros in 2019, its fifth consecutive net loss and in July announced a major restructuring plan.
Sewing said that he expected the positive momentum to carry through into this year.
“We have built firm foundations for sustainable profitability and are confident that this overall positive trend will continue in 2021, despite these challenging times,” he said.
Separately, Commerzbank AG, Germany’s second-largest lender, on Wednesday announced a net loss of “almost 2.9 billion euros” for last year, its first full-year loss since the 2009 financial crisis.
In an ad hoc statement releasing preliminary results, Commerzbank blamed the hit on “the burdens of the coronavirus pandemic,” and restructuring charges linked to job cuts and branch closures.
The Frankfurt-based bank also said it had reached an agreement with labor representatives on plans to slash 10,000 jobs and close hundreds of branches by 2024, as the lender pivots to online banking and cashless payment options.
“The planned reductions are certainly very painful,” said chief executive officer Manfred Knof, a former Deutsche Bank executive who took the helm at Commerzbank last month.
“The agreement signed with the employee representatives today will contribute to creating clarity for our workforce soon,” he said.
Commerzbank said the plan was approved in a supervisory board meeting earlier on Wednesday.
The cuts would affect one in three jobs at the bank in Germany.
The preliminary results showed that Commerzbank booked an operating loss of 233 million euros last year, compared with a pretax profit of 1.2 billion euros a year earlier.
The net loss of 2.9 billion euros compared with a net gain of 585 million euros in 2019.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS