|
Deutsche Bank profit soars
|
 |
August 3, 2000: 8:58 a.m. ET
Profit jumps 115% in first half, beating analysts' expectations
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - Deutsche Bank AG posted a 115 percent jump in first-half profits Thursday, boosted by the sale of a stake in insurer Allianz AG and income from the newly merged Bankers Trust division.
Europe's largest bank also said it is working hard to comply with U.S. regulatory guidelines to enable it to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
Deutsche Bank (FDBK) shares slipped about 2.4 percent to  95.25 in afternoon trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange.
The Frankfurt-based bank reported that net income for the first half of the year totaled 3.78 billion ($3.4 billion), up from 1.76 billion in the year-earlier period. The results beat analysts' expectations of about 3.59 billion ($3.28 billion).
The results benefited from the sale of a 2.9 percent stake in Allianz, Germany's largest insurer, for 2 billion in June. Also, net commission jumped nearly 100 percent to 5.99 billion, boosted by profits from Bankers Trust, the U.S. bank that merged with Deutsche last year.
 On a per-share basis, Deutsche Bank earned 6.58 euros on a fully diluted basis for the January-June period, excluding goodwill amortization, up from 3.06 euros in the 1999 first half.
"Provided no crises occur, we are highly confident that we can sustain this strong performance over the next few months," Chief Executive Rolf Breuer said. "Our optimism is based not least on the brightening prospects for the European economy."
But, Breuer cautioned, the latest results cannot serve as a guide for a full-year profit forecast.
"The experience of previous years has shown that we cannot simply extrapolate our good half-year results to make a forecast for 2000 as a whole," he said.
Breuer also indicated that Deutsche still is open to selling its remaining 4.1 percent stake in Allianz. The bank also indicated Thursday that it eventually may spin off its retail banking unit, Bank 24.
Deutsche has continued to lick its wounds following a failed merger with German rival Dresdner Bank earlier this year. The merger fell apart after the banks failed to agree on how to blend their investment banking operations and thorny questions about the fate of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.
Deutsche executives have suffered blows over the management of retail banking, typically a lower-margin part of the banking business compared with investment banking or asset management services. At the company's annual shareholders meeting in June, Breuer acknowledged there was discontent about its lack of clarity about retail banking.
Banking stocks have been on an steady climb across Europe in recent months. Shares of Deutsche Bank got a lift Wednesday amid speculation that the earnings report would be strong and talk the bank might pay a special dividend after the sale of the Allianz stake. 
-- from staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
|
Deutsche Bank
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
