Best for BRE

BRE Bank ended Q4 2005 with a consolidated gross profit of zł.337.9 million, exceeding not only the initial forecasts but also the increased financial results, which put the figure at zł.330 million. Despite a spectacular improvement in its financial results as compared to 2004, when BRE recorded a zł.294 million loss, the lender is not planning to pay out dividends.

"We don't want to stop at good 2005 results because it's just the beginning of our possibilities. BRE Bank should regularly post results at the level of 20 percent return on equity  annually, starting from 2007," said Sławomir Lachowski, BRE Bank CEO.

The bank also plans that by the end of 2006 its price-earnings ratio should amount to 66 percent while its solvency ratio will drop to 10.4 percent, as compared to 11.09 percent in 2005.

The most important moves implemented last year included the 'BREaktywacja' program, which aimed to reform the lender's corporate banking services. Thanks to it, the average level of corporate deposits in December 2005 was 46 percent (zł.4.4 billion) higher than in the same period in the previous year. Also, retail banking earned an annual gross profit for the first time, of zł.19.1 million.

Some 71 percent of BRE Bank's shares are held by the German Commerzbank Auslandesbanken Holding AG.