Deutsche’s plan buys time but Santander stumbles on Spain
WHAT goes down must come up. That was the apparent lesson from Deutsche Bank yesterday, booking a €2.2bn (£1.8bn) loss but seeing its share price rise to the highest level since the spring of last year.
Since its August lows in 2012, Deutsche’s toughminded recovery plan has put its stock on an upward march, increasing some 48 per cent over that period, while Europe’s banking sector as a whole, as represented by the Stoxx 600 benchmark, rose by just 37 per cent.
Santander on the other hand saw its shares fall, after profits in 2012 were 59 per cent down on 2011, at €2.2bn. Profits would have been up 17 per cent year-on-year at €6.3bn but €4.1bn was set aside to cover bad property loans in Spain.
More troubling for Santander was a fall in operating income outside Spain, including the UK and the US. The bank says the worst is over. Investors still need convincing.