BRE revises annual forecasts following disappointing half-year results

BRE Bank has closed the first six months of the year with a zl. 97.4 million loss, yet as its management promised to do everything to make the bank show profits at the end of the year, BRE Bank's shares rose to zl. 76.30 each. "The loss was due to the problems at the Szczecin Shipyard (Stocznia Szczecinska SA), in which we invested zl. 81 million, the low price of Elektrim shares was also a considerable factor in our poor performance, bringing us a loss of zl. 40 million net," bank president Wojciech Kostrzewa explained. The natural consequence of the 6-month result was a revised estimate for the second half of the year. "Currently, we are very unlikely to make a zl. 408 million net profit, which means that we will not reach zl. 371 million of the consolidated result of the group," Kostrzewa said and announced that BRE Bank was not going to enter any new investment projects this year until it concludes those already started. "We are going to continue talks on the purchase of Elektrim Telekomunikacja shares from Elektrim, but so far we are not interested in acquiring shares in other companies," said the president. (Puls Biznesu, p. 6) K.S.