Bank Pekao's Q2 results stun market analysts

"This was a good quarter. Even a very predictable institution can sometimes positively surprise the market," said Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, president of Bank Pekao. After the first half of the year, the bank's net profit amounted to zł.725 million, which is 18.3% more than in the first half of 2004. ROE stood at 18.7% in comparison to 17.5% recorded last year. "Our results have a strong foundation and they do not include any one-off revenue items. I believe that the revival in economic growth will help us accelerate further in H2," said the president. Representatives of Pekao refused to comment on how many redundancies will follow the expected merger with BPH. (Parkiet, p. 2) M.M.