Deutsche Bank began 2003 with a sign that it will continue to sell down its industrial holdings, as it revealed it had offloaded its 7.5% stake in Buderus, the German boiler manufacturer, to Robert Bosch, the engineering company.

The German bank, which held the stake through its DB Value subsidiary, said it received about €100m ($105m) for the shares. It said about half of that would be booked as profit in its 2002 accounts.