Deutsche Bank restates 2012 profit, hit by legal costs

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, said Wednesday that writedowns and legal costs hit its 2012 earnings harder than expected and it has now been forced to restate last year's profits. "New developments related to specific existing legal matters have occurred after the disclosure of (our) preliminary, unaudited 2012 results on January 31," Deutsche Bank said in a statement. "Based on these developments ... the bank has increased its provisions for litigation by 600 million euros ($774 million) to 2.4 billion euros. "This reduces the previously announced income before income taxes by 600 million euros ... and net income by 400 million euros," it said. Deutsche Bank is currently being investigated over allegations that some of its employees may have been involved in rigging the Libor and Euribor interest rates. And one of its co-chief executives, Juergen Fitschen, is among a number of top managers suspected of involvement in a tax evasion scheme in the trading of carbon emissions certificates. Deutsche Bank's restated year-end net profit now stood at 291 million euros in 2012, compared with 4.326 billion euros in 2011. Pre-tax profit plummeted to 784 million euros from 5.39 billion euros. Deutsche Bank's so-called Core Tier One capital ratio -- a measure of a bank's ability to withstand unforseen risks -- slipped to 7.8 percent in 2012 from 8.0 percent announced at the end of January. "Nevertheless, the bank reaffirms its target for (a capital ratio) of 8.5 percent at March 31," it insisted. Plans to pay shareholders an unchanged dividend of 0.75 euros per share would not be affected, the statement added. Deutsche Bank shares were the biggest gainers on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Wednesday, adding 2.42 percent while the blue-chip DAX 30 index was up 0.56 percent.