Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest bank Tuesday said first-quarter profit rose 48 percent by sales and trading, even as the outlook for the sector remains clouded by uncertainty.
First-quarter net income to €1.8 billion or €2.66 per share from €1.2 billion or €1.92 per share in same quarter a year earlier. Net revenues rose 25 percent to €9 billion, after €7.2 billion a year earlier, the bank said.
Analysts polled by Reuters had estimated that Germany’s biggest lender would earn €1.99 billion in group pretax profit in the quarter ended in March, a rise of almost 10 per cent versus the year-earlier period.
Pretax profits in corporate and investment banking overall were €2.8 billion, a quarterly record that compares with €1.8 billion in the year-ago period, Deutsche Bank said. Sales and trading revenue were flat from the year before at €3.8 billion. Write-downs also fell significantly to €241 million in the quarter, mostly on the bank’s continued exposure to monoline insurers. Earnings for first quarter of 2009 were burdened by a total of €1 billion in write-downs as well as a €500 million impairment charge on a Las Vegas casino property.
Deutsche Bank said its Tier 1 capital ratio stood at 11.2 per cent at the end of March as it absorbed acquisitions such as wealth manager Sal. Oppenheim.