Deutsche Bank Profit More Than Doubles -- Update

By Jenny Strasburg 

Deutsche Bank AG on Thursday reported a solid rise in net profit in the first quarter, in its first results since its $8.5 billion capital increase.

The German lender reported net income of EUR575 million ($627 million) in the quarter, compared with EUR236 million for the same period last year and in line with expectations.

Revenue was EUR7.3 billion, a 9% decrease from last year. Revenue was roughly flat when adjusted for the impact of credit spreads.

The results are Deutsche Bank's first since it completed an $8.5 billion capital increase earlier this month in conjunction with strategic changes announced in March.

The fundraising, Deutsche Bank's third sale of new shares since 2013, put to rest many investors' immediate concerns about the lender's capital buffers. The bank is also reuniting its corporate-finance and deal-advisory business with its trading unit under two investment-banking co-heads, less than two years after splitting the businesses apart.

Chief Executive John Cryan said in a statement that cost-cutting efforts are paying off, and "asset flows are returning across the bank." Deutsche Bank suffered client defections in the third and fourth quarters of 2016 amid concerns about its capital buffers and pending legal settlements.

Debt-trading revenue increased, particularly in interest rates and credit trading, while stock-trading revenue declined largely due to late-2016 outflows of clients in the bank's prime-services unit, which finances trades for hedge funds and other clients. Deutsche Bank also was hurt by higher costs to fund its trading and client-financing businesses.

Investment-banking revenue was mostly unchanged. The process of cutting clients in some areas hit revenue slightly, as it has in recent quarters. Asset-management revenue declined, while revenue increased in the private and commercial client banking business.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2017 02:09 ET (06:09 GMT)

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