MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Pfandbriefbank expects a prolonged crisis on the real estate markets following a slump in new business in the first half of the year. The first quarter of 2024 at the earliest is likely to see a cautious market recovery, the SDax-listed commercial real estate financier announced in Munich on Thursday. In the first half of the year, new business slumped from 4.3 billion euros to 2.5 billion euros compared with the same period last year. Nevertheless, CEO Andreas Arndt believes the bank is "well on track" to earn 170 to 200 million euros before taxes this year as announced, following a pre-tax profit of 81 million euros in the first six months.

In the second quarter, Pfandbriefbank posted a pre-tax profit of 49 million euros, around a quarter less than a year earlier. This was also due to higher provisions for possible loan defaults: the bank put 19 million euros into risk provisions. In the same period of the previous year, the figure was only one million. The bank's bottom line was a profit of 42 million euros, around 24 percent less than a year earlier./stw/jha/