GERMANY – Deutsche Bank says it wants to strengthen its global asset management business, though it is ruling out acquisitions for now.

“To generate profitable growth in our PCAM Group Division, we intend to strengthen our position, in particular as an international asset manager,” said chief executive Josef Ackermann in a statement accompanying the bank’s second-quarter earnings. PCAM is the bank’s Private Client and Asset Management division.

A spokeswoman the Frankfurt-based bank said: “At the moment we are not looking at acquisitions.” She said Ackermann was referring to organic growth at the division, though the bank might look at acquisitions “next year”. She declined to say whether Deutsche had targets for the growth of the asset-management business.

The asset management push is part of a four-part growth strategy which also includes boosting the bank’s brand, focusing on investment banking and maintaining cost control.

The bank’s Deutsche Asset Management unit is the second-largest manager of European pension fund assets, with around 90 billion euros under management.

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s says that Deutsche’s credit rating will in part depend on its ability to achieve a lasting turnaround of the PCAM unit.

The PCAM division today posted pre-tax income of 286 million euros, 31.4% down on the 2002 period’s 417 million euros. Total revenues were 2.0 billion euros, down from the prior year period’s 2.7 billion euros.

Overall Deutsche Bank reported a pre-tax profit of 1.1 billion euros, down from the 2002 quarter’s 2.2 billion-euro profit.

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