Yahoo Finance Deutsche Bank Investors Lash Out Over Failure to Flag Legal Hit
(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing was attacked by shareholders over his failure to anticipate legal provisions that have put parts of his payouts pledge in doubt.
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The provisions announcement late last month “hit us like thunder,” Deka Investment fund manager Andreas Thomae said at Deutsche Bank’s annual general meeting on Thursday. “This has destroyed trust,” he said, asking Sewing directly to explain how he had made the “miscalculation.”
Other investors echoed his remarks, with Markus Kienle from retail investor association SdK demanding that Deutsche Bank disclose the identity of its legal team.
The chances of carrying out a second share buyback this year have become “less likely,” Deutsche Bank Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke said at the AGM. It’s the starkest admission from the lender’s management yet that their payout plans have been thrown into disarray by the legal case.
The bank will book provisions of as much as €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) in the current quarter, it said in a statement on April 26. The announcement came just one day after the lender’s top management discussed quarterly earnings on a call with analysts on which they renewed a pledge to carry out a second share buyback this year but didn’t mention the court hearing or its potential impact.
Seeking to explain that omission, Deutsche Bank subsequently said that it was caught completely off guard by the outcome of the court hearing. It also said it had mentioned the hearing “on page 310” of its annual report.
The firm’s other capital distribution plans remain unchanged, the bank has said.
Read More: Deutsche Bank Legal Shock Upends CEO Sewing’s Buyback Plan
Analysts had previously cast doubt over the bank’s ability to stick to the buyback promise, but Deutsche Bank until now had declined to indicate whether the provisions would affect the plan.
The decision to book the charges followed a hearing in which a German court indicated that it may partly side with claimants in a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank. The hearing changed the lender’s view on the likelihood that it will need to pay the claimants.
(Updates with context throughout)
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