Hellenic Bank records profit in 2008

Hellenic Bank Group closed 2008 with a profit, before tax, of 44.6 million euro, despite marking lower profit compared to 2007.

Speaking during Wednesday’s HB Shareholders’ Annual General Meeting (AGM), both the chairman of the board of Directors Andreas Panagiotou and the bank’s CEO Makis Keravnos said that despite the negative economic climate worldwide, the Group has marked profits.

They both noted that the HB’s solid foundations, strong fluidity, sufficient capital and very satisfactory indicators will help the bank overcome the economic crisis.

They said that despite developments, and bearing in mind the market’s conditions, the group decided to give a 02-cent final dividend to shareholders per share for 2008. Together with the interim dividend of 05 cents that was given to shareholders in October 2008, the total dividend for 2008 given to shareholders reached 21 million euro.

Meanwhile, HB CEO Keravnos introduced a new housing plan with low interest rate for couples and families.

He told the AGM that it is geared for permanent residents of Cyprus with a Euribor three month +2.75% interest rate which in today’s prices equals to 3,99%.

He also announced a new plan for consolidating loans which is addressed to HB’s clients who have personal loans and credit cards either at Hellenic Bank or other banks. The interest rate for this will be 9.5%.