Deut-Sche Bank said on Thursday it needed to show stronger profits before seriously discussing a major merger or takeover, only days after pulling out of exploratory talks with US Giant Citigroup.Germany’s biggest bank and the world’s leading financial services group held preliminary discussions in January about a takeover of Deutsche, resurrecting talks from 2003, but they came to nothing, sources said. Sources said Deutsche chief executive Josef Ackermann believed a deal was politically impossible at present.A Citigroup-Deutsche Bank combination would dominate global investment banking but would mean thousands of redundancies to remove overlaps, and the loss of a national champion in Germany. Ackermann, who said on Thursday he was open to any strategic deal that does not damage the interests of the bank, spent last year trying to boost Deutsche’s market value and strengthen its negotiating position. (Reuters)
