Deutsche Bank AG earned 1.8 billion euros (US$2.4 billion) in the first quarter of the year, a gain over last year amid improving results from the selling of debt and equities, the bank said yesterday.
That compared with a net profit of 1.2 billion euros in the first quarter of last year.
The bank, based in Frankfurt and Germany’s biggest lender, said its net revenues rose 24 percent to 9 billion euros in the January-March period compared with 7.2 billion euros last year.
Despite the gain, the bank said the results reflected 241 million euros in write-downs, but added that the year-ago figure also included write-downs of 1 billion euros and a charge of 500 million euros.
Still, Deutsche Bank said record pretax profit at its corporate and investment bank unit along with improved revenues from selling and trading debt and equities, lifted its first-quarter results higher.
“The economic environment clearly stabilized in the first quarter 2010, but is not without some remaining vulnerability,” chief executive Josef Ackermann said in a statement.
Separately, Britain’s partly nationalized Lloyds Banking Group said yesterday that it turned a profit in the first quarter as the rate of impairments on bad loans slowed.
In a trading update, Lloyds said such provisions were lower in both its retail and wholesale divisions.
Lloyds, created from the merger of Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland, said it was also making good progress on integration savings, and expects to achieve £2 billion (US$3.1 billion) worth of synergies and other savings by the end of next year.
The government has a 41 percent stake in the bailed-out firm.
Customer deposits rose by £5 billion in the first quarter, while lending balances were little changed, the company said.
“Impairments have slowed significantly in the first few months of the year giving us confidence that we will achieve a better financial performance than previously guided,” CEO Eric Daniels said.
“I am pleased to report that we returned to profitability in the first quarter and expect this momentum to be sustained throughout 2010,” Daniels said.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
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