Deutsche Bank Profit Beats Estimates as Overhaul Looms

By Shane Strowmatt and Elena Logutenkova

Deutsche Bank AG, days after paying a record fine for rigging interest rates, posted first-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates, helped by increases in debt and equity trading that pushed revenue to a near record.
While net income fell to 544 million euros ($590 million) from 1.1 billion euros in the year-earlier period, it surpassed the 256 million-euro average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Profit in the period was hurt by a 1.5 billion-euro charge for legal costs as the bank reached a settlement in the Libor probe, the lender said Sunday.
“Profit would have been an absolute record if they didn’t have litigation,” said Dirk Becker, a Frankfurt-based banks analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux. “It’s an absolutely sensational quarter.”