Exceeding expectations

While analysts were expecting Bank Millennium to post a net profit of zł.90-100 million in Q2, the lender significantly out-earned those predictions, ending the quarter with zł.128 million in profit - an 83-percent year-on-year increase. That raised the bank's profits for the first six months of the year to zł.212 million, compared with the zł.140 million which it earned in H1 of 2006. Millennium's operational revenue reached zł.798 million at the end of June, while in June 2006 the figure stood at zł.587 million.

The president of Millennium, Bogusław Kott, credited the situation in the economy for the growth. "Partly it is our achievement, but the favorable economic situation had a big influence," he said. The bank's loan portfolio had grown by 57 percent year-on-year at the end of June, reaching zł.18.8 billion. This growth was driven by mortgage loans, which nearly doubled in comparison to H1 of last year and reached a value of zł.10.6 billion, giving Millennium a 10.9-percent share in the mortgage-loan market (two percentage points higher than in June 2006). Deposits in Millennium's investment funds in H1 grew by 36 percent year-on-year to reach 23.4 billion.

The firm's H1 results mean that its goals could be reached earlier than expected. "If we manage to keep up the growth in the second half of the year, then our strategic goals for 2009 could well be achieved in 2007," Kott said.