GERMANY – Deutsche Bank says the restructuring of its asset management business is now over.

“Our asset management arm has its restructuring phase behind it,” the bank said in its interim report for the first quarter. The Private Clients and Asset Management group swung to a first-quarter pre-tax profit of 274 million euros, compared to a loss of 81 million euros a year earlier.

Total net revenues at the division fell 25% to 1.99 billion euros, from 2.64 billion euros.

Deutsche Asset Management is the second largest manager of European pension fund assets, with around 91 billion euros in such assets under management.

Deutsche Bank as a whole posted a net loss of 219 million euros, from a profit of 270 million euros a year before. Total revenues fell to 4.9 billion euros from 7.5 billion euros. Staff levels across the group have fallen from 77,442 at the end of March 2002 to 70,882 at the same period this year.

Last week DeAM said that it plans to take an activist approach to the running of companies in which it owns significant holdings. It also said the current bear market could last up to 10-15 years.