Deutsche Bank's Shares Rise After New CEO Talks Tough -- Update

(Adds share move, background and further info on the investment-banking unit.)

 
   By Nathan Allen 
 

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK.XE) shares jumped Monday morning after its new chief executive said he wouldn't accept missed targets and set out priorities to turn the German lender around.

"We have to regain our hunger for business, achieve improvements in all business divisions and set the bar higher," Christian Sewing said in a letter to employees on his first day on the job.

Deutsche Bank, grappling with a string of full-year losses, said Sunday it would replace John Cryan as CEO with Mr. Sewing, the German head of its retail bank, effective immediately.

At 0750 GMT shares in Deutsche Bank were trading 2.9% higher at 11.68 euros ($14.34), having earlier risen as much as 4.7%.

Mr. Sewing said there was "no free lunch" and employees had to work as a team to return the German lender to profitability. He said the bank would revise processes to eliminate bureaucracy and duplication, and hinted at further shakeups at the corporate and investment banking arm.

While the bank has a sufficient capital cushion, high liquidity and a strong balance sheet, its investment-banking arm has struggled with falling revenues. Investors and employees expect Deutsche Bank to further scale back trading operations, once a major income source for the investment bank, in moves considered to be motivated in part by pressure from European and U.S. banking regulators.

"We'll thoroughly analyze how we want to position this pillar of our bank in a difficult market environment," Mr. Sewing said in the letter, which was posted to the bank's website.

In 2017 the lender posted a net loss of EUR751 million--its third consecutive full-year loss--due in part to a hit from the U.S. tax reforms, but also because of steep fourth-quarter revenue declines in all three of its business units.

Mr. Sewing stressed the need for cost control. Cost setbacks, such as those seen in the fourth quarter of 2017 "are not to be repeated under any circumstances," he said. Adjusted costs in 2018 must not exceed EUR23 billion euros, he said.

"The time pressure is on and the expectations are high from all sides: our clients, our investors, the regulators, politicians and the media," Mr. Sewing said.

Write to Nathan Allen at [e-mail]

Jenny Strasburg contributed to this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 09, 2018 04:19 ET (08:19 GMT)

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