Despite the economic consequences of the Ukraine war, Commerzbank sees itself on course for billions in profits. The shareholders should also benefit from this.
Commerzbank sees itself prepared for economic imponderables as a result of the Ukraine war and is sticking to its goals.
“The bottom line is that we continue to expect consolidated earnings of more than one billion euros,” confirmed CEO Manfred Knof on Wednesday at the online general meeting. According to Knofs, the war in Ukraine will primarily have a negative impact on corporate customer business. The direct burdens on the institute, on the other hand, are comparatively low.
In addition, the bank has a solid equity base, emphasized the head of the Frankfurt MDax group. Andreas Thomae from Deka Investment sees the institute as “solidly positioned and well prepared for imponderables” with a hard equity ratio of 13.6 percent.
Number of branches reduced to around 550
Knof took over the management of Commerzbank at the beginning of 2021 and tightened the austerity course. The Management Board has set itself the goal of reducing the number of full-time positions from around 39,500 originally to 32,000 by the end of 2024. The number of branches was reduced by 250 to around 550 last year.
Commerzbank, whose largest shareholder is the German state with 15.6 percent, returned to profitability last year. Shareholders can hope for a dividend for this year, according to Knof’s speech published in advance last week.
The agenda for the Annual General Meeting included the remuneration of the Management Board. The bank wants to link the variable remuneration for its top managers more closely to corporate development based on environmental, social and good corporate governance (ESG) criteria.
In addition, the general meeting is to decide on changes to the articles of association during the term of office of the supervisory board members. It is planned to reduce the regular term of office of the inspectors from five to four years. The bank explained at the beginning of April that this picks up on a discussion about the term of office of supervisory board members, which is sometimes perceived as too long in international comparison.
Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
