Deutsche Bank's Withdrawal From Equities Said to Go Global

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG is about to embark on a retreat from a swathe of equities markets across the world, including some on its own doorstep in Europe, according to people familiar with the matter.

Germany’s biggest lender, which is expected to announce a range of restructuring measures to coincide with its annual shareholder meeting Thursday, will sharply reduce its presence in the U.S. market, and has also started cutting activity in the Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

The decisions spring from a wide-ranging review of the bank’s global equities business. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing has indicated that the bank will scale back the business that services hedge funds and the trading of stocks will also be affected, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Among those to leave the bank are London-based head of CEEMEA equity sales Darren Veenhuis, the people said. Veenhuis declined to comment to Bloomberg Wednesday. Pascal Moura, who runs equity research for the region from Dubai, is also leaving the bank, the people said. Moura didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The CEEMEA desk specializes in trading emerging-market securities and has been singled out as one area where Deutsche Bank needs to reassess how it competes with other investment banks, the people said.

The Frankfurt-based lender also declined to comment.

Sewing has promised a large-scale restructuring of the investment bank to focus on areas that have more direct links with European companies. Germany’s largest lender said last month that it also plans to scale back U.S. rates sales and trading and reduce the corporate finance business in the U.S. and Asia, in addition to the equities review. The measures will result in significant job losses, it said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net;Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net;Donal Griffin in London at dgriffin10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Geoffrey Smith, Paul Armstrong

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