Deutsche Bank To Cut 500 Positions, Reduces 2011 Profit Targets
The continued global economic crisis is leading Deutsche Bank to cut 500 positions and to issue a profit warning.
Speaking ahead of the bank’s earnings statement to be released later this month, Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee of Deutsche Bank, gave investors Tuesday earnings guidance at a conference in London.
Deutsche Bank will publish its full Interim Report on the third quarter of 2011 on October 25, 2011.
According to Ackermann, the intensifying European sovereign debt crisis led to sustained uncertainties among market participants in the third quarter and thus to significantly reduced volumes and revenues in particular in the Corporate Banking & Securities (CB&S) Corporate Division.
At the same time, the third quarter of 2011 has been negatively impacted by operating costs relating to an indirect tax position, Ackermann said.
As such, the third quarter 2011 result will come in significantly lower than expected for the CB&S business division.
Ackermann said that in response to the significant and unabated slowdown in client activity, Deutsche Bank will consider additional cost controls beyond those already implemented as part of the recalibration of the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB).
This will lead to a reduction in headcount by around 500 positions in CB&S during Q4 2011 and Q1 2012, primarily outside Germany, Ackermann said.
In addition, the Group will reflect impairment charges on Greek sovereign debt of approx. EUR 250 million (Q2 2011: EUR 155 million), which the Bank continues to mark to market.
The Bank expects that against this background as well as ongoing market turbulence the planned pre-tax target of EUR 10 billion from its core businesses is no longer achievable for 2011, Ackermann said.
Nevertheless, Ackermann said, the Bank will be profitable in the third quarter and expects a robust earnings level for the full year 2011. The Bank is confident that the classic banking
businesses (Private Clients and Asset Management and Global Transaction Banking) as a whole will deliver their best pre-tax profit ever, Ackermann added.