COMMERZBANK AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT

Group Management Report
188
132 Commerzbank Annual Report 2011
Outlook
The European sovereign debt crisis and related uncertainty about the global economy indicate
that uncertain market trends will continue for the shipping industry, although we expect
this to vary by individual asset class.
While container shipping depends in particular on the European economy recovering and
the moderate growth in the USA continuing, bulk shipping is reliant on continuing strong
demand for raw materials in the developing nations and growth in China. The uncertain demand
for oil is limiting market expectations for tankers. The markets for bulkers and tankers
are also being adversely affected by continuing high fleet growth.
We therefore expect business to be inconsistent overall in 2012. As we are continuing to
reduce risk and conduct a very restricted volume of new business, we expect income to decline
and risk costs to remain high.
Asset Management and Leasing
After a strategic and structural reorientation in 2010, the Commerz Real Group reported confident
business performance in 2011. By concentrating on cooperation with the Private Customers
and Mittelstandsbank segments and reducing non-strategic holdings, the assets
managed by Commerz Real fell last year by €1.4bn to around €37bn as of December 31,
2011. Of this, around €23bn related to investment products and around €14bn to funding
products.
Investment products: growing importance of renewable energies and infrastructure
Commerz Real offers a broad range of asset-based investment products to private and institutional
customers.
With a fund volume of around €10bn, hausInvest is one of Germany’s largest open-ended
property funds. In 2011, it was “A” rated (high quality) by Scope, the independent rating
agency. In addition to its profitability, Scope also commended the fund for its widely diversified
property portfolio of recent provenance. At the end of its financial year as of March 31,
2011, hausInvest achieved a yield of 3.2% (calculated using the BVI method), which was the
best annual performance of all open-ended property funds for private investors.
Commerz Real is also tapping into the infrastructure investment asset class through special
property funds for its institutional investors. The majority acquisition in July 2011 of the
RWE subsidiary, Amprion, represented a major milestone in this regard. It was the largest
transaction of its kind in Germany to date. On behalf of a group of institutional investors,
Commerz Real acquired 74.9% of the company, which operates Germany’s largest extrahigh-voltage
grid, which is 11,000 kilometres long.
In October 2011, Commerz Real continued its successful solar fund issue series with the
“CFB-Fonds 179 Solar Deutschlandportfolio IV” with a volume of €245m, making it the largest
solar fund to date. In recognition, it was honoured, as in 2010, with the Scope Investment
Reward 2011 in the category closed-end energy funds.