German online brokerage Consors today posted a full-year 2001 operating loss equivalent to a third of its market value as the deadline for its sale looms.
Europe's second-biggest brokerage by client numbers posted a €212.8 million operating loss after a dismal year for the whole sector.
"The business year 2001 was so far the most difficult year in our corporate history," Consors chief executive Mr Karl Matthaeus Schmidt said in the firm's annual report for 2001 published today.
He said he expected a moderate recovery of capital markets this year, adding Consors' domestic operations should break even.
Consors and its main European rivals comdirect and DAB bank have just come through the worst year since they were formed, battered by an erosion of income amid stubbornly weak global capital markets and exploding costs and losses at European operations.
Consors said net commission income - its core business of fees from buying and selling shares for retail investors - dropped 45 per cent to €125.5 million.
Consors was put up for sale by the consortium that bailed out its parent, private regional bank SchmidtBank, and a deadline of the end of March was set.
Declared bidders include French banks BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, as well as Germany's Commerzbank, which controls Europe's biggest e-brokerage, and Consors rivals comdirect.