Deutsche Bank mulls selling India retail ops: Report

Deutsche Bank is mulling selling its retail operations in the country as it undergoes a massive restructuring plan, a German daily has reported. Handelsblatt reported today that Deutsche Bank's India retail banking business, involving 17 branches, is being sold along with its 20 percent stake in Chinese group Hua Xia Bank, latter currently valued at 3.3 billion euro. The newspaper said exit from Asia is a part of a return to European retail banking, but said the move is yet to get final approval from the bank's management board.

The bank's branch operations in the country had delivered a 93 percent surge in its net profit for the year ended March 2015 at Rs 1,406 crore. When contacted, a spokesperson for Deutsche Bank in the country declined comment on the matter, calling it as "speculation". For FY15, the bank's profit per employee stood at Rs 79.16 lakh and the capital base was Rs 9,453 crore as of March 31, 2015.

The return on assets had improved to 2.55 percent in FY15 from the year ago's 1.54 percent. It had registered a 25 percent jump in assets at Rs 36,138 crore on an increase in wholesale and retail businesses. Its country chief executive Ravneet Gill had attributed the "sustained strategic focus on India" as one of the biggest factors which resulted in the handsome profits from the country operations.

Apart from retail operations, the bank also has a presence in equity broking, asset management, corporate finance, non banking finance company (NBFC) in the country.