Publications
Partners
Frankfurt - Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, said on Thursday that it was revising down its 2013 earnings to reflect the recent settlement of a long-running legal dispute.
Deutsche Bank said in a statement that net profit amounted to €681m in 2013, rather than the €1.08bn originally reported in January.
The reduction by €401m reflected a deal to settle a long-running legal battle over the collapse of the media empire of the late Leo Kirch, as well as other write-downs, the bank explained.
For the same reasons, Deutsche Bank restated its 2013 pre-tax profit at €1.456bn, instead of €2.07bn.
In February, Deutsche Bank announced it would pay €775m to settle all legal disputes with Kirch.
In a long and bitter legal battle dating back to 2002, Leo Kirch, who died in 2011 at the age of 84, had been suing Deutsche Bank for more than €3.0bn.
Kirch claimed that former Deutsche Bank chief executive Rolf Breuer was responsible for his downfall after he openly questioned creditworthiness in a television interview.
In the wake of the deal, the bank's litigation reserves - cash set aside to cover various lawsuits it is involved in - declined to €1.8bn, it added.
The group's plans to pay shareholders an unchanged dividend of €0.75 per share would be unaffected by the settlement, Deutsche Bank said.
