Deutsche Bank posts first-quarter slump in net profit

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, posted a drop in first-quarter net profit on Tuesday, but the outcome was slightly better than expected. Net profit slumped 34 percent to 1.1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in the January-to-March period, compared to 1.7 billion in the same period a year earlier, the bank said. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had pencilled in net profit of 927 million euros. Net revenues fell by 11 percent year on year, to 8.4 billion euros, while income before income taxes came to 1.7 billion euros for the first quarter, a 30-percent drop compared to the same period in 2013. "Lower client investment activity exacerbated by uncertainty around emerging markets as well as continued low interest rates and a highly competitive environment are reflected in decreased revenues across most businesses," the bank said in a statement. However the bank's two co-chief executives expressed satisfaction with the first-quarter showing. "Our core businesses all contributed to a resilient performance in the quarter, which enabled us to grow our common equity base by over 1 billion euros," , Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain said in the statement. The bank announced on Monday a move to raise at least 1.5 billion euros in fresh capital, the first stage in plans to raise five billion euros by the end of 2015.