Frankfurt/Main (dpa) – Commerzbank’s return to profitability, which was believed to be certain, almost failed after all: provisions in the millions of the Polish subsidiary mBank spoiled the fourth quarter. However, Commerzbank rushed to reassure its shareholders that “nevertheless, a positive consolidated result for the 2021 financial year” can be expected. Next Thursday (February 17th) CEO Manfred Knof will present the balance sheet. The bottom line is that analysts expect a mini profit of around 100 million euros.
Shortly after Christmas, Knof had confirmed in the “Handelsblatt” interview: “It is a great success that we will report a positive result in 2021 despite restructuring expenses of one billion euros.” The income – i.e. the total income – had increased compared to the previous year, and the provision for impending loan defaults was lower than feared at the beginning of 2020, the manager explained.
However, there was an additional burden due to the uncertainty surrounding foreign currency loans in Poland. At the end of the year, the Polish subsidiary mBank put aside a further 436 million euros. The background is the dispute over how to deal with Swiss franc loans: in the past, many Poles had taken out loans in Switzerland to finance a property due to low interest rates. But because the Polish national currency, the zloty, lost a lot of value against the Swiss franc as a result, the burden on borrowers increased. Many try to sue for compensation from their bank.
Commerzbank closed 2020 with a loss of around 2.9 billion euros, making it the highest loss since the 2009 financial crisis. At that time, the state had saved the bank from collapsing with billions in taxes and became its largest shareholder.
Knof, who started as a reorganizer on January 1, 2021, has tightened the austerity course. The Executive Board wants to reduce the number of full-time positions from originally around 39,500 to 32,000 by the end of 2024. The branch network in Germany will be significantly thinned out: 450 of the 790 locations will remain.
Knof admitted: “Of course it’s not enough to downsize and cut costs.” His primary goal: Commerzbank, which was relegated from the first stock exchange league to the MDax, should not – as so often in the past – become a takeover candidate. It is about “creating all the conditions for Commerzbank to remain independent,” emphasized the CEO at the “Economic Summit” of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” in November.
And Knof would love to plan the future without the state. “As a private bank, we believe that it is of course better if we are independent later and if the state will certainly go out again at some point,” said Knof at the “Economic Summit”.
Another major shareholder is on the retreat: the US financial investor Cerberus sold a significant part of its shares in the two major banks a good four years after joining Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank. According to a voting rights notification from January, the Cerberus stake in Commerzbank fell from just over five percent to just under three percent. The hedge fund, which had long hoped for a merger between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, had promoted the change at the top of Commerzbank with clear criticism of Knof’s predecessor, Martin Zielke.
Knof sees his bank in a good position for the current year, as he said shortly before the turn of the year: He was “fundamentally optimistic” that Commerzbank’s core business would continue to develop well. But Knof is also a realist, as he admitted in November: “We still have the longest way to go. We’re in the middle of a marathon.” Analysts trust the bank to make a profit of a good 900 million euros for the current year.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220213-99-103769/2
–
