By Eyk Henning
FRANKFURT--Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) Friday said it expects to
post a first-quarter loss due to already announced expenses worth
500 million euros ($652.5 million) in connection with job cuts,
down from a net profit of EUR369 million in the first three months
of last year.
The expected net loss comes despite Germany's second largest
bank starting "solidly in the first three months of 2013 in
operational terms," Chief Executive Martin Blessing said at the
annual general meeting in Frankfurt, adding the bank will keep
costs stable and further optimize its capital resources.
The move to cut costs comes as the industry is struggling with
tougher capital requirements that make some activities
unattractive, and as euro-zone worries, as well as low interest
rates, put pressure on banks' earnings.
Commerzbank, which additionally has to cope with integrating the
ill-timed acquisition of troubled rival Dresdner Bank in early
2009, plans to eliminate 4,000 to 6,000 full-time jobs through
2016.
Mr. Blessing Friday also urged shareholders at the meeting to
give the go ahead to the bank's plan to raise EUR2.5 billion ($3.26
billion) in new capital, a move that would allow it to further
repay government bailout money and reduce the state's involvement
in the bank. "We owe this to the taxpayer," he said.
The sale of new shares will allow it to fully repay the
remaining EUR1.6 billion in non-voting shares, or "silent
participations," still held by the German government's
financial-markets stabilization fund, known as SoFFin, and EUR750
million in non-voting shares held by Allianz SE (ALV.XE).
Write to Eyk Henning at eyk.henning@wsj.com