By Aiswarya Lakshmi The German lender Commerzbank is making money in tough market as it sheds another $1.2bn of ship loans. For the first time ever, Commerzbank's shipping portfolio stands at less than EUR 10 billion, according to the third quarter interim report, in which the German bank presents a profit of EUR 207 million. The Exposure at Default (EaD) was reduced over the second quarter of 2015 in the areas of Commercial Real Estate (CRE) and Ship Finance by EUR 5.1 billion. Therefore, the EaD in the two areas at the end of September 2015 amounted to a mere EUR 22 billion (second quarter of 2015: EUR 27 billion; Q3 2014: EUR 36 billion) and was thus only EUR 2 billion higher than the target for the end of 2016. In the Ship Finance area the portfolio was reduced by EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 9.7 billion (second quarter of 2015: EUR 10.8 billion). "We intend to continue the sustainable growth path of the Core Bank through the rest of the year, and thus continue to aspire to an increase in revenues and market shares. Despite the dividend accrual that we have made, we have further increased our CET 1 equity ratio to 10.8%. We assume that this ratio will at the very least remain stable in the fourth quarter," said Stephan Engels, Chief Financial Officer of Commerzbank. Nov 3, 2015
Commerzbank has sold another $1.2bn in shipping loans meaning that, for the first time ever, its shipping portfolio stands at less than €10bn. Shipping has weighed heavily on financiers, with the industry facing one of the worst downturns in 2014.