In spite of a challenging fourth quarter, Deutsche Bank declared its first full-year net profit since 2014.
The German lender has been facing series of setbacks owing to fines, several failed restructuring attempts, and money-laundering allegations. The bank admitted that assets under management dropped 5% in the fourth quarter, and its common equity tier-1 ratio, which indicates a bank's strength, dropped to 13.6 % in 2018, versus 14 % at the end of 2017. The profit number of 341 million euros ($390 million) for 2018 failed to beat market consensus, with a Reuters poll of analysts predicting a figure of 461 million euros.
But there is still a bright side. A net revenue of 25 billion euros for the year and 5.5 billion for the fourth quarter missed estimates only narrowly, indicating that this is not too concerning after all.
The bank’s CEO, Christian Sewing, expressed optimism at the full-year results, which show that the company is on the right track after all. The need of the hour is to carry on with this progress in 2019 and not stoop at speculations like a possible merger with a rival company because of the company’s on-going problems.