Commerzbank Forecasts 1Q Loss Due to Revamp Charges

By Eyk Henning

FRANKFURT--Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) Friday said it expects to post a first-quarter loss due to already announced expenses worth 500 million euros ($652.5 million) in connection with job cuts, down from a net profit of EUR369 million in the first three months of last year.

The expected net loss comes despite Germany's second largest bank starting "solidly in the first three months of 2013 in operational terms," Chief Executive Martin Blessing said at the annual general meeting in Frankfurt, adding the bank will keep costs stable and further optimize its capital resources.

The move to cut costs comes as the industry is struggling with tougher capital requirements that make some activities unattractive, and as euro-zone worries, as well as low interest rates, put pressure on banks' earnings.

Commerzbank, which additionally has to cope with integrating the ill-timed acquisition of troubled rival Dresdner Bank in early 2009, plans to eliminate 4,000 to 6,000 full-time jobs through 2016.

Mr. Blessing Friday also urged shareholders at the meeting to give the go ahead to the bank's plan to raise EUR2.5 billion ($3.26 billion) in new capital, a move that would allow it to further repay government bailout money and reduce the state's involvement in the bank. "We owe this to the taxpayer," he said.

The sale of new shares will allow it to fully repay the remaining EUR1.6 billion in non-voting shares, or "silent participations," still held by the German government's financial-markets stabilization fund, known as SoFFin, and EUR750 million in non-voting shares held by Allianz SE (ALV.XE).

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