The latest confirmation that Germany’s troubled banking giant Deutsche Bank is unable to navigate the troubled waters of NIRP came on Wednesday when the bank announced that its second-quarter net income fell 98% from a year earlier, hurt by weaker performances in trading, investment banking and other core areas. The lender said net income tumbled to €20 million ($22 million) from €818 million a year earlier, modestly better than the €22mm loss expected, while net revenue dropped 20% to €7.4 billion.
After rebounding modestly on the beat, the bank’s shares fell tumbled 5% on Wednesday morning, their lower level in 2 weeks; today’s decline has dragged DB stock 45% lower in 2016, making it one of Europe’s worst performers YTD (the Stoxx 600 is down 27% in 2016).
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As the WSJ notes, the Frankfurt-based bank has been hit harder than most. It is cutting costs and clients and trying to satisfy new, more-stringent capital requirements over the next three years. Its turnaround strategy has eaten into trading and investment-banking revenue, and investors’ concerns about the adequacy of its capital cushion have persisted. The bank also has been trying to settle regulatory investigations expected to result in big fines, another uncertainty for investors.
Chief Executive John Cryan said in a statement that the bank is making progress in a multiyear turnaround, but warned that if weak market conditions persist, it “will need to be yet more ambitious in the timing and intensity of our restructuring.â€Â
Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan
Investors were unimpressed, and the shares now trade for two thirds less than their tangible book value, a steeper discount than even during the depths of the financial crisis.
What is more troubling is that as Bloomberg adds, the worst is yet to come.
The second quarter gives little cause for celebration. In a quarter which saw revenue sink 12% and net income came in at almost zero,even after litigation costs tumbled, the only division to increase revenues and profit was Postbank, the consumer unit, which Cryan hopes a “white knight” will take off his hands. And unlike rival Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank was able to boost its key capital ratio fractionally in the quarter.The focus on cutbacks meant that Deutsche Bank was unable to benefit from its strength in fixed-income trading in a quarter during which the U.K. vote to leave the European Union stoked market volatility.
