COMMERZBANK AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT

To our Shareholders Corporate Responsibility Management Report Risk Report Group Financial Statements Further Information 151 207
127 71 Business and overall conditions
135 79 Earnings performance, assets and financial position
147 91 Segment performance
137 193 Our employees
143 199 Report on events after the reporting period
144 200 Outlook and opportunities report
Eurohypo AG’s strategic realignment will continue in the Asset Based Finance segment.
Optimisation of the portfolio structure and a focus on core markets will further reduce business
complexity, the aim being to concentrate resolutely on core activities that add value.
Last year we invested €12m in Commercial Real Estate through the “Focus” project, which
was largely completed in 2011. The “CORRELATION” strategy project launched at Commerz
Real AG in 2009 will also continue. The aim is to separate non-strategic peripheral activities,
optimise structural and process organisation and focus on Group sales. The cost of the project
in 2011 was €4m. The project will be completed in 2012. Investment in Ship Finance
was largely dominated by the integration of Deutsche Schiffsbank AG (DSB) into Commerzbank
Aktiengesellschaft. After implementation in the current year, all ship finance activities
will be grouped in Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft. The integration of DSB into Commerzbank
is expected to deliver significant synergies, particularly from improved refinancing.
Costs of €9m had already been incurred for this purpose by year-end 2011.
Work will continue as planned in 2012 on the “Group Finance Architecture” (GFA) programme
that was initiated in 2009 to redesign the process and system architecture of the
Commerzbank Group finance function. The main thrust of the GFA includes the development
of a multi-GAAP solution, the integration of financial accounting and management accounting
and a resulting significant acceleration in processes, plus improvement of analysis options.
The aim is to establish corresponding architecture for Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft
Germany Accounting by year-end 2014. An investment of around €310m is planned
by the end of the project in 2014. Of the investment so far, around €125m was incurred in
2011, and around €50m is expected for 2012.
Funding for all investment planned in 2012 will be sourced from Commerzbank’s freely
available inflow of funds.
Liquidity outlook
In view of the worsening economic outlook and deepening European sovereign debt crisis,
the ECB lowered interest rates twice in the fourth quarter and also took far-reaching new
measures to stabilise banks in the eurozone. We assume that the ECB will continue to monitor
current events closely to determine how far these measures have the desired effect. If the
European sovereign debt crisis should intensify again, we assume that the ECB would implement
further interest rate measures in 2012. This could involve narrowing the spread between
the top refinancing rate and the deposit facility.
In terms of interest rates, we expect the euro yield curve to continue flattening for maturities
up to one year, combined with a further narrowing of the spread between the 3-month
Eonia rate for secured finance and the 3-month Euribor rate for unsecured finance.
We expect Commerzbank to continue to enjoy unrestricted access to secured and unsecured
funding on the money and capital markets.
Group Management Report