Is Millennium's bad Q1 results a sign of things to come?

Bank Millennium posted a 37% drop in first-quarter net profit on Thursday, citing an industry slump which continued despite signs of an economic reviv al. Millennium, the first major Polish bank to report its quarterly results, said its group net profit fell to zł. 29.9 million as its asset quality con tinued to worsen while credit growth stayed weak. The company's CEO Bogusław Kott told a news conference that the bank's bad loans ratio rose to 24.3% f rom 23.6% at the end of 2002, one of the highest in the financial sector. M illennium, whose results are closely watched by investors as an early indic ator for the industry, is half-owned by Portugal's largest private bank Ban co Comercial Portugues (BCP). (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 23; Reuters) J.K.