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Deutsche Bank posts record profits

FRANKFURT, Germany, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- German banking giant Deutsche Bank's fourth-quarter profits more than tripled, giving it a record pre-tax profit of $7.7 billion in 2005.

Net profits rose by 58 percent to $4.6 billion, the firm said Thursday.

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Deutsche Bank published the excellent numbers just a day after it extended the contract of its Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann until 2010.

"We will have no problem growing even more," Ackermann told German news channel n-tv.

Swiss-born Ackerman's job became endangered after he became embroiled in a scandal over payouts to former top executives he approved when he was a board member at German telecommunications firm Mannesmann. He has also come under fire for slashing thousands of jobs at a time when Deutsche Bank was turning in record profits.

"Deutsche Bank is so well-equipped ... it won't have any problems (without me)," he told n-tv.

Analysts still say it is possible Ackermann may have to resign if the Mannesmann affair returns an unfavorable outcome.

A regional court had already acquitted him in the affair, but a federal institution overturned that acquittal to haul him back into court.

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