Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – Shareholders of Poland’s biggest bank welcomed the news that a big dividend would be paid out as well as the CEO’s positive financial forecasts.
PKO BP had a good first quarter.
“The results were much better than in the same period of 2005. We hope that the whole 2006 will be better than the previous year”, Andrzej Podsiadlo, PKO BP CEO said.
He refused to give details but told about the bank’s plans for the upcoming years.
“PKO BP has managed to build a very strong market position in several basic segments, including mortgage banking, credit cards, electronic services and small and medium-sized companies. We have managed to remain the biggest bank. Our aim is to stay the leader in all basic segments”, Andrzej Podsiadlo said.
In the first quarter, the number of electronic services clients grew by 50 percent to 1.5m. The number of credit cards increased by several dozen thousand to about 600,000. In fall this year, the bank is launching implementing IT system, which should last 18 months. The company has 1,250 outlets and 2,5 agencies. PKO BP is on short lists to buy banks in three countries.
The management has also said that PLN 800m (EUR 205.1m) out of PLN 1.7 billion of net income would be paid out as dividend. The rest will be spent on investment projects.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.256)