"Investors refused to buy into what looked like solid results at first sight... the DB results remained far behind its US peers," said analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya of LCG Insight. Deutsche was able to drive down costs as part of a long and painful restructuring, helping profits grow 143 percent year-on-year to reach 575 million euros ($627 million) between January and March, significantly higher than analysts' expectations.
Deutsche achieved the increased earnings on the back of revenues around 9.0 percent lower, at 7.3 billion euros. The fall in revenues was down only to an "accounting effect", argued Equinet analyst Philipp Hassler, saying that the shares remain a good deal for investors and the bank is "well on track" to continue improving its results.
"Client engagement is strong, asset flows are returning across the bank, and activity is picking up," Deutsche chief executive John Cryan said in a statement. The lender reported a 1.4-billion-euro loss for the full year 2016, less painful than the bottom line the year before when it was almost 7.0 billion euros in the red, but much worse than expected by analysts.
Last year saw Deutsche hit with a number of heavy fines, as well as battling headwinds from low interest rates, tougher banking regulation and a massive restructuring plan that will see the bank withdraw from some business areas. In the first quarter, the CEO's restructuring brought down adjusted costs 5.0 percent compared with the same period a year ago, with around 1,600 jobs slashed. In its home market Germany, some 130 of 188 planned branch closures have already gone ahead.
The bank's capital buffer - kept on hand to cushion the impact of financial shocks - grew slightly, to 11.9 percent. But Deutsche was able to increase its capital ratio further to 14.1 percent after the end of the first quarter, raising some 8.0 billion euros by issuing new shares. While the group offered no financial forecasts for 2017, Cryan told employees in an open letter Thursday that "we can and should look forward to the rest of 2017 with a good degree of optimism."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017