The Hellenic Bank is expected to record the biggest gains since 1999, the analysts revealed on Tuesday. According to SFS, CLR and Egnatia, the Hellenic Bank is expected to announce profits of £13.8 million against hardly £0.8 million in the first half of 2005. Specifically, SFS and CLR expect profits of £13.5 million and £13.8 million respectively, while Egnatia anticipates £14 million. In an announcement released on August 3, the Hellenic Bank said that its six-month results for 2006 are expected to show improvement compared to the corresponding period of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. This is mostly attributable to the increased revenues and the drop in the provisions for bad debts.

Strategic goals

The Hellenic Bank, which returned to profits in late 2005, is heading towards growth. In the first quarter of 2006, the bank announced profits of £6.8 million (+130%).

During the presentation of the results for 2005, Higher Executive Manager, Makis Keravnos, said that the bank’s aim is to improve the ‘expenses to revenues index’ to 69% in 2006, increase the market share, expand the revenues, improve the quality of the loan portfolio and reorganize the debt regaining service.

After the announcement of its six-month results, the bank will announce its targets for its complete strategic plan for 2006-2008.