Hellenic in positive profit warning

Hellenic Bank Pcl (HB) issued a positive profit warning regarding its first half financial results, which are expected to show a significant improvement compared to the same period a year ago and also compared to the first quarter 2006 profits. The expected improvement is attributed to an increase in organic income achieved in 1H06 and a significant reduction in provision levels compared to 1H05.

A year ago in the first half, Hellenic had reported a net profit of CYP 794.000. In the first quarter the Bank reported a net profit of CYP 6.9 mln yielding an EPS of 2.8 cent.

In another development, with regards to recent press reporting HB’s consent in acquiring 9.99% of USB’s share capital amongst other parties interested in acquiring USB, the Bank announced that some preliminary inquiries were made regarding a possibility of HB to participate in the new Group, however there were no specific proposals from / to the Bank regarding the abovementioned issue.