Germany’s Deutsche Bank reports drop in profit steeper than expected #NewsGerman

Germany’s Deutsche Bank on Thursday reported profit before tax of €5.3 billion ($5.5 billion), down 7% year-on-year in light of the settlement of litigation issues related to its takeover of Postbank.

The figure is below what analysts had expected.

The bank’s fourth-quarter profit attributable to shareholders plunged 92% to €106 million from last year’s €1.26 billion. Despite this, dividends are set to rise from €0.45 to €0.68 per share.

In addition, Deutsche Bank held out the prospect of a further share buyback of €750 million.

Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing was confident that the bank would increase its return on tangible equity to more than 10% in 2025 as planned, despite the recent decline in profits. Last year, at 4.7%, it was not even half as high.

Revenues are expected to continue to grow from about €30 billion to around €32 billion in the current year.

Sewing said 2024 was “an important transitional year, which laid the foundation to take the next big step together from a position of strength.”

We have always said that 2025 will be decisive for us. At the end of this year, we will be judged by whether we have been successful with our transformation and growth strategy.

The key benchmark for this is our post-tax return on tangible equity (RoTE), and we are convinced that we will increase this to over 10 percent this year as planned. The very strong start to the year reinforces our confidence.”