German-listedAllianz Group, which recently agreed to sell offDresdner Bank to rival Commerzbank, said operating profits in the third quarter of 2008 dropped by €1 billion from a year ago to €1 billion.

Dresdner, which is the parent of UK-based private bankKleinwort Benson, was sold in September this year. As a result, Allianz said the sale will be reported under the category of discontinued operations as of 1 September 2008. Discontinued operations accounted for a net loss of €2.6 billion in the third quarter, comprised of a net loss from the bank’s operations of €1.2 billion as well as transaction-based impairments of €1.4 billion.

Across the group as a whole, Allianz said total revenues decreased slightly by 3.8 per cent to €21.1 billion. Quarterly net income from continued operations amounted to €545 million, down from €2.0 billion in the third quarter 2007.

During the first nine months of 2008, Allianz made an operating profit of €6.5 billion, down from €7.7 billion in the same period of 2007. Net income from continued operations amounted to €4.2 billion, compared to €6.1 billion in the same period of last year.

In asset management, operating revenues fell to €698 million in the third quarter from €803 million a year before. Asset management’s operating profit of €186 million was cut by foreign currency and capital market movements, a fall of 44 per cent from the strong third quarter of last year.

Third-party assets under management rose to €754 billion by the end of the third quarter, up from €740 billion at the end of the second quarter. Net inflows amounted to €5.6 billion in the third quarter. A negative capital market effect of €44 billion was more than offset by a positive foreign exchange effect of €53 billion.