Germany's Commerzbank reported better-than-expected results in the first three months of 2025. The bank's net profit replaces the expected declining net income %It increased by 12 to 834 million Euro’.
Revenues of the lender %Net interest income was slightly lower than a year ago, with a 12-year increase to €3.1 billion, compared to €2.07 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2025’. Meanwhile, net commission income in the same period due to the influence of the strong securities business %6 increased to 1 billion Euro’.
Bettina Orlopp, CEO of Commerzbank, said: "By demonstrating that we can grow even in times of economic hardship, we have achieved the highest quarterly profit since 2011’. We are on our way to implementing our “‘Momentum’ strategy. We plan to bring more capital to our shareholders in the coming years.”
Commerzbank has completed the €1 billion ’ share buyback program from November 2024’, and also offers to pay a dividend of €0.65 per share to be agreed at the Annual General Assembly ’ on May 15, 2025’.
Better-than-expected results come at a time when the German bank is striving to fend off takeover moves by Italian banking group Unicredit’.
Unicredit recently acquired a large stake in Commerzbank’ta ,9’a was taken out; this is what Unicredit’in needs to IPO for the entire bank %It's just below the 30 threshold.
In February, Commerzbank announced that the bank's workforce would be about %He announced that he had taken cost-cutting measures, including the dismissal of 10’.
Employee representatives of the German bank are also holding a protest against a possible takeover, just hours before Commerzbank’'s annual plenary meeting in ’ on May 15.
Commerzbank confirms this year's targets
The German bank said it expects a higher net result of around €2.4 billion for the entire year following restructuring expenses this year.
The bank allocated €40 million for restructuring expenses in the first quarter for its early partial retirement program, which it will offer later this year. That's part of the layoffs; The lender is currently negotiating with employee representative committees.
In addition, to maintain profitability, Commerzbank is also reducing its dependence on net interest income (the difference between what it earns from loans and what it pays on deposits) as interest rates fall.
Financial equity profitability in the first quarter of last year %From the 10.5 level %increased to 11.1’e; That's a strong seasonal figure. Commerzbank CFO’su Carsten Schmitt, “%"We are on track to achieve our goal all year round around 9.6," ” said. “We are also reducing our dependence on net interest income. We confirm our 2025 forecast.”
