To know the fate of Commerzbank we will have to wait until autumn. She said it Martin Zielke, CEO of the German institute, answering questions from analysts during the shareholders' meeting in Wiesbaden.
Zielke also underlined that he has no intention of providing further details ahead of time: “I cannot and do not want to prejudge the results of our strategic considerations. After the strategy days of the planned supervisory board in the autumn we will provide news on how we will continue to develop our post 2020 strategy”. The strategic update is expected to be reviewed in mid-September and communicated in early October.
After the failure of the merger negotiations with the other German banking giant, Deutsche Bank, several rumors about the possible future of Commerzbank have been chasing each other. In the front row for a cross-border marriage there are three institutes: the Dutch Eng, the French Bnp Paribas and above all the Italian Unicredit. At the moment, however, it cannot be ruled out that Commerzbank will eventually decide to continue either alone on your own way.
On the integration dossier, Zielke limited himself to remarking that talks with Deutsche Bank were 'right and important', because they have shown that "the strategy is correct", but also "where we could possibly refine it". In any case, Commerzbank "will examine all options to optimize profitability - added the CEO - Among these there are organic adjustments, as well as potential non-organic opportunities".
As regards the accounts for the first quarter of 2019, while declaring himself "not satisfied" with the profitability achieved, Zielke confirmed three key objectives for 2019: the return of a dividend from 20 euro cents per share, an adjusted profit higher than that of 2018 and costs falling below 6,8 billion.
