Deutsche Bank Profit Rises on Tax Gains, Asset Sales

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest bank, said third-quarter profit rose 31 percent as tax credits and gains from asset sales outweighed the first loss at its investment bank in five years.

Net income climbed to 1.62 billion euros ($2.34 billion), or 3.31 euros a share, from 1.24 billion euros, or 2.43 euros, a year earlier, the Frankfurt-based company said in a statement on its Web site today. Deutsche Bank estimated on Oct. 3 that net income would exceed 1.4 billion euros.

Gains from German tax changes and the sale of Deutsche Bank’s North American headquarters cushioned the impact of 2.16 billion euros in writedowns and trading losses linked to the U.S. subprime mortgage contagion. UBS AG, Europe’s biggest bank by assets, yesterday said more writedowns are possible in the fourth quarter, while Merrill Lynch & Co. ousted Chief Executive Officer Stan O’Neal after a record loss.

“It looks as if the troubled areas aren’t diminishing and probably will stay with us for the foreseeable future,'’ said Paul Vrouwes, who helps manage about $218 billion at ING Investment Management, including Deutsche Bank shares. “Nobody knows what the future will look like in terms of a recovery.'’

Deutsche Bank’s shares have declined 12 percent this year, compared with a 9.1 percent slump in the 63-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index. The bank’s stock trades at 7.96 times estimated profit, the fourth-lowest among the 50 financial companies closest to Deutsche Bank by market value globally, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Profit Goal

“Looking forward, challenges undoubtedly remain,'’ Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann said in a statement. “We have made a positive start to the fourth quarter, and assuming markets function at normal levels, we re-affirm our commitment to delivering on our 2008 financial targets.'’

Investment-banking revenue in the fourth quarter may be “significantly lower'’ than the record levels reached over the past year, though it should remain “high'’ when viewed on a longer-term basis, the bank said.

Deutsche Bank’s writedowns are the third-highest as a proportion of the securities unit’s revenue among the eight biggest investment banks that already reported earnings, behind Merrill Lynch and UBS, according to company reports.

Sales and trading revenue, which accounted for almost half the bank’s total last year, slumped 62 percent after 1.56 billion euros in writedowns and trading losses in fixed-income and equities. The bank also wrote down loans to fund buyouts by 603 million euros, net of fees, leaving it with leveraged finance commitments totaling 41.4 billion euros at the end of September.

Compensation Drops

The investment banking unit, run by Anshu Jain and Michael Cohrs, recorded a loss of 179 million euros in the quarter, compared with a profit of 1.03 billion euros in the year-earlier period. Pretax profits at the consumer banking, asset management and transaction banking units rose 35 percent to a combined 832 million euros.

Ackermann, 59, said in a letter to shareholders today that sales and trading will remain “a critical part of our platform,'’ though the bank may make unspecified “adjustments'’ to some business lines. He said last month that Deutsche Bank would probably scale back hiring plans. No job cuts have been announced.

Personnel expenses for the 17,181 employees at the corporate and investment bank fell 87 percent to 177 million euros in the quarter. The drop in costs reflects “lower performance-related compensation in line with business results,'’ the bank said.

`Isn’t Enough’

Ackermann has said he would expand the so-called stable businesses of consumer lending and money management to help increase pretax profit to 8.4 billion euros in 2008, excluding one-time costs and gains. The bank may miss this goal by 300 million euros, according to the median estimate of 15 analysts who updated their forecasts this month.

Deutsche Bank bought German lenders Norisbank and Berliner Bank for a combined 1.1 billion euros last year, gaining more than 640,000 clients, and acquired Britain’s Tilney Investment Management Ltd. to expand in consumer banking and money management.

Debt sales and trading revenue dropped 71 percent to 576 million euros, as “substantial market turbulence caused breakdowns in relationships between credit securities and hedging instruments,'’ the bank said. Equities trading revenue fell 38 percent to 428 million euros, missing the 1 billion-euro median forecast of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, on a loss in proprietary trading and lower revenues in equity derivatives.

Asset Sales

Ackermann said last month that Deutsche Bank made mistakes during the credit boom that led to “exaggerated commitments,'’ including leveraged lending.

Losses at the investment bank were cushioned by 654 million euros of gains from selling stakes in Allianz SE, Linde Group, and its building on 60 Wall Street in Manhattan. An appreciation in the value of the bank’s option to increase its 10 percent stake in China’s Huaxia Bank Co. also contributed to the gain. In addition, the company booked about 600 million euros in tax credits in the quarter.

UBS, based in Zurich, yesterday reported its first quarterly loss in almost five years after writing down fixed-income securities and loans committed to leveraged buyouts by almost $4.7 billion. CEO Marcel Rohner said that the investment bank may not return to profitability in the fourth quarter.

Adjusting Downward

Credit Suisse Group, which reports earnings tomorrow, told shareholders on Oct. 1 that its earnings from continuing operations probably ranged from a 29 percent decline to a 6 percent increase for the quarter.

New York-based Merrill Lynch posted the biggest loss in its 93-year history last week on $8.4 billion of writedowns. Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S. bank, had $6.5 billion in costs for fixed-income trading and underwriting losses and consumer loans gone bad.

“My concern going forward is not so much about how much banks have to write down as one-offs,'’ said Jane Coffey, who helps oversee about $14 billion as head of equities at Royal London Asset Management. “It’s much more about what is the normalized business revenue going forward. That’s where we’ll have to adjust downwards from the record levels we’ve been seeing in the last two years.'’

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