As I speculated previously, Deutsche Bank is going to be firing a bunch at 60 Wall any moment. Per Bloomberg:
Sheeeeesh. I suppose this is for the best, though, take a look at these highlights:
- 1Q net revenue EU6.98 billion, down 5%; analyst estimate EU7.27 billion
- 1Q sales and trading revenue EU2.45 billion, down 17% while U.S. counterparts rose 12%
- 1Q net income attributable to shareholders EU120 million
Look at that last one! Ladies and gentlemen, €120M is NOT a lot of money.
Sewing knew coming into his new job that this had to be a “rip the band-aid off” type of restructuring and I commend him for wasting no time in getting down to business. They mentioned on the call that there would be a “significant reduction” in headcount this year, and they’re targeting U.S. rates S&T, U.S. corporate finance and the coup de grâce, global cash equities trading. If you don’t make markets in rates and equities or advise companies on raising capital in the U.S., are you even really an investment bank? Maybe in practice you retain some IB capabilities, but people won’t be doing business with you in an IB capacity – which is fine. Sewing’s job, first and foremost, is to make money, and he’s going to do it the only way he knows – traditional commercial and retail banking, with a sprinkle of asset management. So good luck to Sewing, and even more best wishes to all of the DB employees updating their resumes right now. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.