Deutsche Bank Q4 profit surges in 3rd year of annual profit By Reuters

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Deutsche Bank’s fourth-quarter profit surged, exceeding expectations and contributing to a third consecutive year of profit that was helped by higher interest rates and buoyant trading but damped by a slump in dealmaking that has shaken the industry.

Net profit attributable to shareholders was 1.803 billion euros ($1.99 billion) in the three months ending Dec. 31, figures published on Thursday showed. That compares with a profit of 145 million euros a year earlier, and it is better than analyst expectations for a profit of around 951 million euros.

It was a tenth consecutive quarter of profit, making for the longest streak in the black in at least a decade.

For the full year, profit was 5.025 billion euros, up from 1.940 billion a year ago and better than expectations for 4.174 billion euros. It was the largest annual profit in at least a decade.

Germany’s biggest bank exceeded a key profit target – so-called return on tangible equity of 8% – with a figure of 9.4%, a milestone that Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing had set for the bank when it embarked on a major overhaul in 2019.

“Over the past three and a half years we have successfully transformed Deutsche Bank (ETR:),” said Sewing, who was promoted to the top job in 2018 to turn Deutsche around after a series of embarrassing and costly regulatory failings.

($1 = 0.9074 euros)