Christian Sewing, CEO for just over a year, and his finance chief are on a week-long roadshow to explain the restructuring. To underline his commitment, Sewing plans to invest a quarter of his fixed salary — around 820,000 euros — in Deutsche shares, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
“There seem to be some concerns about the plan details, particularly the ability for the bank to retain revenues while cutting costs,” one of the bank’s top 25 shareholders told Reuters, citing worries the bank would need fresh equity to execute Sewing’s plan. “Cutting back volatile, capital-intensive and underperforming sales and trading activities, and further reducing the cost base should improve profitability and strengthen leverage, but execution risks are high,” it said.Deutsche plans to return closer to its roots by focusing on corporate banking and asset and wealth management, areas that can offer more stable revenues than investment banking but are increasingly competitive.
Douglas Braunstein, who holds a 3.1% share in Deutsche through his New York-based Hudson Executive Capital, said it would take a while for the market to appreciate what Deutsche Bank is doing.