The private bank published its annual figures on Thursday morning.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt Interest income from corporate customer business more than tripled Commerzbank’s profit last year. The bottom line was a profit of 1.4 billion euros in 2022, after 430 million euros in the previous year, as Germany’s second largest private bank announced on Thursday. Analysts interviewed by the bank had expected a profit of 1.35 billion euros.
The operating result was 2.1 billion euros after 1.18 billion euros in the previous year. Bank boss Manfred Knof thus exceeded his goal of increasing consolidated profit to over one billion euros. “This shows that our strategy is working and that we have managed to turn the tide,” explained Knof. “Commerzbank is back.”
For the first time in four years, the bank is proposing a dividend of 20 cents per share. However, analysts had expected a higher payout of 25 cents per share. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the institute has only paid out part of its profits to shareholders in two years – 2015 and 2018.
In addition, the Management Board also intends to return money to shareholders through a share buyback program. In total, 30 percent of the profit is to be distributed, and the quota is to rise to 50 percent in 2023. However, the share buyback still has to be approved by the European Central Bank (ECB) as the supervisory authority and by the Federal Finance Agency. This holds the state share in the bank.
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