October 29, 2025
Adidas and Deutsche Bank report profits, Mercedes and BASF drop off
Some of Germany’s biggest companies released their third quarter results on Wednesday, with sportswear giant Adidas reporting a slight increase and Deutsche Bank announcing a record quarterly profit.
In Bavaria, Adidas said a 23% increase in operating income to €736 million ($856 billion) had only produced a 3% increase in net profit, at €482 million, blaming currency and inflation effects and higher taxes.
Meanwhile, in Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank reported a record €2.4 billion pre-tax profit for the third quarter, meaning that Germany’s biggest bank has made €4.8 billion in the first nine months of 2025.
“With record results in the third quarter and over the last nine months, we’ve proved that we can increase value for our customers and shareholders in a rapidly changing environment,” said chief executive Christian Sewing.
In Stuttgart, however, automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz saw net profit drop 30.8% to €1.19 billion ($1.38 billion), a result of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump and increased competition from China.
Car exports from the European Union are subject to a tariff of 15% under an EU-US deal unveiled in July, down from the initially threatened 27.5% percent but far higher than the 2.5% in force before Trump launched his trade war.
At the same time, sales in key market China dropped off by 27% in the third quarter, helping drag overall sales down 12%.
“Our third-quarter results are in line with our full-year guidance,” insisted Mercedes boss Ola Kaellenius, but admitted: “Looking ahead, we expect the market environment to remain challenging. Hyper-competition in China is not going away anytime soon.”
Finally, chemicals giant BASF also reported a disappointing third quarter, with turnover down 3.2% to €15.23 billion year-on-year. “Customer purchasing power remained restrained in almost all of our industries and regions,” commented chairman Markus Kamieth.
