Commerzbank in Greek hit
COMMERZBANK investors looked beyond a €760m (£666.6m) writedown on Greek debt yesterday to the lender’s strong earnings from corporate lending and securities trading.
Germany’s second-biggest lender said that second-quarter operating profit shrank to €55m from €210m a year earlier, well below the €105m average estimate, thanks to the Greek debt writedown.
Analysts said results at Commerzbank’s core businesses of corporate loans and markets and the Mittelstandsbank unit were robust, while losses were isolated mainly at the non-core Eurohypo unit, a real estate lender slated for sale.
The Mittelstandsbank, which specialises in financing Germany’s medium-sized companies, was the main profit driver again, generating operating profit of €501m.
Trading profit jumped 86 per cent to €664m.