CARY – What’s next for Deutsche Bank? After ending merger talks with its rival Commerzbank on Thursday, Deutsche Bank posted a 67% profit increase for the first quarter of 2019 on Friday.
But revenue fell 9%, and the company said it would be “essentially flat” for the year. Its investment bank saw revenues slump 13%.
How will the German bank now address concerns over its ability to compete with US rivals? Investors aren’t sure. Shares fell almost 3% in early trading in Frankfurt.
The bank has a major software development operation in Cary where it continues to hire workers, according to jobs postings at Glassdoor.
Some 900 people work at the Cary outpost.
CEO Christian Sewing said that “our continued cost discipline helped us to offset lower revenues.”
Deutsche Bank, which has big Cary presence, and German rival break off merger talks
However, the bank said that “we expect revenues in 2019 to be essentially flat compared to 2018,” compared with its previous call for a slight increase.
Sewing was tight-lipped during a call with analysts on what if any new strategies Deutsche Bank might pursue after dropping the Commerzbank merger talks.
“We will not be drawn on speculation about what other options we have considered, or what options are or are not under ongoing consideration,” he said. “You should also not draw any conclusion from this unwillingness to comment.”
The bank said net profit was 201 million euros ($224 million), compared with 120 million euros a year earlier.
Revenues dropped to 6.35 billion euros from 6.98 billion euros. The bank said revenues from fixed income sales and trading were off 19 percent at 1.5 billion euros, while those from equity sales and trading dropped 18 percent to 468 million euros.
Deutsche Bank shares dropped 4.1 percent to 7.23 euros in Frankfurt trading.
