Deutsche Bank Mulls Issuing Profit Warning: WSJ

(RTTNews) - Deutsche Bank AG (DB), Germany's biggest lender, is considering a profit warning as executives believe its fourth-quarter results will be below expectations, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing people familiar with matter.

The bank is expected to issue the warning in the next few days. The firm is scheduled to report the quarterly results on January 29.

The bank suffered larger-than-expected losses from sales of unwanted assets during the period, the journal reported quoting these people. Like other banks in Europe and the U.S., Deutsche Bank was hurt by a slowdown in fixed-income trading.

Deutsche Bank executives are reportedly evaluating whether the expected damage is big enough to require the bank to disclose the likely shortfall ahead of its results.

Like many European peers, Deutsche Bank is selling noncore assets to boost its capital ratios, complementing an effort last year to end questions about its capital adequacy by issuing about 3 billion euros of new shares. That effort generated large losses in the fourth quarter as the bank sold assets at cut-rate prices, the Journal reported citing people.

It also is likely to incur a sizable loss from implementing a new derivatives-accounting rule.

DB closed Friday's regular trading at $52.27, down $1.64 or 3.04%.