DWS – With patience in the end – economy

Deutsche Bank replaces in advance the head of the fund company DWS. For a long time, people were unhappy at headquarters because investors were withdrawing money month after month.

In the end, it was only a matter of time. A few months ago, DWS already knew how close it would be for Nicolas Moreau, the former head of the largest German fund management company. In March, the 53-year-old Frenchman publicly announced that the company was supposed to be a release to become more independent from troubled mother Deutsche Bank, which continues to control the fund. Since then, the course of action DWS has dropped by one-fifth. Fund investors withdraw their money month after month, more recently at 2.7 billion euros in the third quarter.

It was a few billion too much. At its meeting on Thursday, the Bank's supervisory board discussed the extension of Moreau's contract, which would have been part of Deutsche Bank's board of directors until October 2019. It was known that the bank manager Christian Sewing did not get on well with Moreau. After resuming outings, there were enough arguments to get rid of him. Now that Moreau is officially going to the end of the year, he immediately gives the position of chief.

I am thinking in particular of 53-year-old Asoka Wöhrmann, who has had a career in Deutsche Bank's fund business since 1998 and has earned an excellent reputation internally. He knows the DWS by heart, especially as a current member of the supervisory board. Before taking over the management of Deutsche Bank's private banking business at the end of 2015, he worked for many years as chief investment strategist for the fund subsidiary. Wöhrmann had already spoken to the management of the group for a good year and had made it clear that he was not satisfied with the position he was currently holding. The bank has faced a choice: either it rises or it lets one of its most popular managers take advantage. As head of DWS Wöhrmann "permanently appointed to the Plenipotentiary," said the bank Thursday, he reported directly to CEO Sewing. Unlike Moreau, he will not sit on the board of directors of the bank. Financial supervisors do not like being managers in more than one financial institution, Moreau was an exception.

The bad mood that reigned between this and the rest of the bank's management team became evident at the end of July. As the DWS had to justify for the second time in a row cash outflows, it missed the annual cash flow target. Moreau announced the bad news of the parent company, responsible for what was not agreed internally. Shortly after, there were first rumors about his next replacement. At the same time, the name Wöhrmann immediately reminded me: Born in Sri Lanka and raised in East Westphalia, he began his career in loan management 20 years ago as a PhD economist. Now he has the difficult task of increasing the 676 billion euros, which manages the DWS again. Moreau's contract is fully paid for. In addition, Sewing's confidant, Frank Kuhnke, will be Deutsche Bank's new IT Director for the New Year.