(by Dr. Goldfinger)

On Wednesday, Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann said he could restructure bank and cut costs to hit ROE target as soon as next year.

“We will do whatever is necessary in terms of structural, personnel and diversification changes in order to hit our 25 per cent return on equity target,” he said.

He also revealed the information that without the drag of the 1% return achieved by Deutsche’s industrial shareholdings which absorbed 16% of capital the bank’s ROE was already 25%. Bank ultimately cut its long-standing 11.5 stake in carmaker DaimlerChrysler to 10.4% in the second quarter of the year.

But specialists doubt its ability to hit the target. “There is nothing in the share price now to reflect a belief in that kind of ROE,” said one of them.