Deutsche Bank said first-quarter profit rose 48 percent, surpassing analysts’ estimates, on gains at the investment bank.

Net income rose to 1.76 billion euros ($2.35 billion) from 1.19 billion euros in the year-earlier period, the Frankfurt- based bank said a statement today. Earnings beat the 1.33 billion-euro average forecast of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The investment-banking unit, led by Anshu Jain and Michael Cohrs, reported a doubling in pretax profit to 2.6 billion euros in the quarter, buoyed by debt and equity trading. Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. posted record revenue from debt trading earlier this month.

“Deutsche Bank has a very strong position in fixed income and the U.S. peers have shown how well debt trading is going,” said Lutz Roehmeyer, who helps manage about $16 billion at Landesbank Berlin Investment including Deutsche Bank shares. “It’d be a disappointment if Deutsche Bank didn’t beat estimates after what competitors reported.”

Deutsche Bank has risen 12 percent in Frankfurt trading this year, compared with a 2.6 percent gain in the 52-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index. The company has a market value of 34.4 billion euros.

JPMorgan, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs beat analysts’ estimates for first-quarter earnings, helped by debt trading, while UBS AG posted the highest pretax profit in almost three years, in part because of a recovery at its fixed-income unit. Credit Suisse Group AG last week fell the most in more than two months in Zurich after missing a gain in debt trading that helped lift earnings at rivals.

Earnings Goals

Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann pledged in December to double pretax profit at the operating businesses by 2011 to 10 billion euros from 2009, helped by gains in investment banking and Asia. The bank is likely to reach 7.6 billion euros in pretax profit next year, based on the median estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Ackermann, 62, has been seeking to reduce dependence on the investment bank by making acquisitions. Deutsche Bank completed the purchase of Sal. Oppenheim Group, Germany’s biggest independent private bank, and parts of ABN Amro Bank NV’s commercial lending activities in the Netherlands this year. It also bought a stake in Deutsche Postbank AG and has an option to raise the holding.

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Apr 27th, 2010and filed underEquities, Europe, Latest News, Markets, News & Events.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site