Deutsche Bank profits beat forecasts

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, notched up Tuesday a better-than-expected performance in the third quarter boosted by improved market conditions. Deutsche Bank said in a statement its net profit after minority interests rose by 3.0 percent to 747 million euros ($970 million) in the period from July to September. That was better than expected, as analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had been pencilling in third-quarter net profit of 704 million euros. Underlying earnings, as measured by pre-tax profit, were up even more, gaining 20 percent to 1.1 billion euros. Investors were cheered by the numbers and Deutsche Bank shares were the biggest gainers on the Frankfurt stock exchange, adding 3.72 percent while the overall market was up only 0.95 percent. Net revenues grew by 18 percent to 8.7 billion euros, with revenues in corporate banking and securities soaring 65 percent. "We delivered a strong operating result in the third quarter, boasted co-chief executives Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, attributing the performance to "improved market conditions and increased market activity." "We acclerated our de-risking and capital formation intiatives and, based on our increased Core Tier 1 capital ratio of 10.7 percent, we are on track to achieve our Basel 3 capital ambitions," they said. Looking ahead, however, the bank appeared cautious. "In the near term, the macro environment remains uncertain, and we will maintain a cautious and risk-focused approach," the two CEOs said. Equinet analyst Philip Haessler described the third-quarter numbers as "very good", while Christian Muschick at Silvia Quandt noted that "most of the positive surprises came from the investment banking activities which are volatile."