(Adds more detail, CEO comments)
WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Polish Bank BPH said it upped first-quarter net
profit from continued operations by 21 percent due to growing loan volumes and
rising deposits, and gave more details on its rebuilding plans after it was
split and sold last year.
The lender was Poland's third largest bank until the bulk of its assets were
absorbed by peer Bank Pekao as part of a merger of UniCredit's local units. Its
new owner is General Electric unit GE Money Bank.
BPH's Chief Executive Jozef Wancer has stayed on to rebuild the bank's
business and he said its net profit in the quarter ending March 31 rose to 47
million zlotys from an adjusted 38.9 million a year earlier.
"Despite our planned expansion costs we can assure investors that we'll be
showing net profit in the second, third and fourth quarter of this year," Wancer
told reporters today.
The bank's share price fell 1.7 percent to 92.3 zlotys today, compared to a
0.1 percent decline for the broad market.
Italy's UniCredit last November agreed to spin off and sell 200 branches of
Bank BPH to GE Money to gain Polish authorities' approval for a merger of its
local units under Bank Pekao brand.
In the process BPH, formerly Poland's number three lender, lost all of its
corporate business and dropped out of Warsaw bourse's blue-chip WIG20 index.
But Wancer now says he plans to end this year with 1,200 corporate clients
compared to 500 now. The bank will also add 40-50 new branches this year and
grow its affiliate branches network to 150 from the current 20.
After Polish regulators give the BPH-GE Money merger a green light, the
network will also incorporate GE's 120 consumer finance outlets.
"We also maintain (we will have) double-digit growth in our income from
banking operations in the coming quarters," Wancer said.
BPH's income from banking operations grew 18 percent to 235 million in the
first quarter. Net interest income surged 44 percent to 154 million zlotys,
driven by a 25 percent rise in loans to small and medium-sized companies and 34
percent growth in retail deposits.
adrian.krajewski@thomson.com +48 22 447 2430
ak1/ra
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