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Deutsche Bank is shutting down most of its corporate-finance division in South Africa as part of a global review of its business.
The Frankfurt-based bank will terminate its advisory, corporate-broking and sponsor-services units in Africa’s most-industrialised economy over the next six months, it said in an emailed response to questions, without elaborating on the number of jobs that may be affected.
The move comes after Europe’s largest lender reported two straight annual losses in 2016 and 2017. It is now under the leadership of newly appointed CEO Christian Sewing, who has been tasked with leading the bank’s turnaround amid poor investor confidence and downgrades from top rating agencies.
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“There will be an orderly wind-up over a period of up to six months,” said a Deutsche Bank spokesperson via email.
“Our debt capital markets, fixed-income and treasury products in South Africa will not be affected. We remain committed to our South African clients.”
The Frankfurt-based lender employs 130 people at its South African unit, according to its website. It has had a presence in South Africa since 1979 and opened a branch in 1998, offering corporate-finance advisory services, equities research and trading, foreign-exchange and fixed-income trading as well as global transactional banking.
Newspaper Business Day reported some of the news earlier.
