Commerzbank: shares trade higher after third-quarter results

(CercleFinance.com) - Commerzbank's underlying revenues increased in the third quarter, with the group gaining new customers, prompting the German lender to say that it has the "right strategy.
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In the third quarter, the bank's underlying revenues rose by nearly 9% year-on-year to 2.17 billion euros, while operating profit fell to 331 million euros, from 623 million euros.

"We have significantly improved the quality of our earnings compared to last year," said CFO Stephan Engels.

Commerzbank said that it has grown in a "highly competitive market."

In the private and small business segment, it gained around 117,000 net new customers in Germany in the third quarter. With 900,000 net new customers since October 2016, Commerzbank is on track to achieve its target of one million net new customers by the end of 2018.

The group is maintaining its full-year outlook unchanged, and is aiming to resume dividend payments of 20 cents per share for financial year 2018.

As a result, Commerzbank shares were trading up 4.9% at 8.8 euros on the XETRA market on Thursday morning.

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