BPH-PBK expected to report improved Q4 results

BPH-PBK, the country's third largest bank, is expected to show stronger net earnings when it unveils its fourth quarter figures on Friday, but analysts said weak credit growth and bad loans continued to weigh. The bank, a unit of Germany's HVB Group, is likely to have netted zl. 66 million ($17.2 million) on average in the last quarter of 2002, with the full-year figure reaching zl. 193 million, a Reuters poll of ten analysts showed yesterday. The Q4 net result would be an improvement from zl. 47 million and zl. 13 million posted in the second and third quarters respectively, when hefty reserves for its loan exposure to a bankrupt domestic shipyard depressed the bank's bottom-line. The Q4 figure is hard to compare with the same period of 2001 when the bank showed a zl. 352 million net profit thanks to a large tax refund linked to its lost loans write-offs. Its pre-tax loss then reached zl. 57 million. (Reuters) A.Z.