BCR logs $164 million in net profit

Banca Comerciala Romana (Romanian Commercial Bank – BCR)’s net profit amounted to $164 million last year, up 12.3% in dollars compared with 2001. The profit in ROL went up 19.4%, that is only two percentage points above the 17.8% December to December inflation.
BCR’s profit in euro, however, shed 4.6%, due to the more serious depreciation of the ROL against the European currency.
BCR chairman Nicolae Danila estimates the net profit to exceed $160 million this year, as well. The assets of the largest bank on the Romanian market were worth more than 4.4bn euros at the end of last year, one billion euros more than at the end of 2001. BCR accounts for 32% of the total assets in the banking system in Romania, while its net profit accounts for 44% of the total net profit made by all the commercial banks on this market, according to the data released by BCR. Its equity reached $786 million, up 30.5% from 2001.
The liquidity ratio against the total deposits was of 55.18% in late 2002. ROA was of 3.73% in 2002, while ROE reached 20.93%. Cost/revenue ratio was of 49.1%.
BCR’s credits granted to individuals and corporate bodies had come to total $1.5bn by the end of 2002, $400 million more than in 2001.
BCR’s financing accounted for 28% of the total non-governmental credits granted by the banks last year. The share of the private capital clients in BCR’s credit portfolio is 80%. Overdue loans account for less than 2% of its total credit portfolio. BCR at the end of last year was managing 5.4 million accounts for 3.1 million clients through a network of 283 branches and agencies.
The 2002 financial results audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers were endorsed by the General Meeting of Shareholders on Tuesday.
Ovidiu Musetescu, chairman of the Privatisation Authority (APAPS), which holds 70% in BCR estimates this year’s privatisation-related budgetary revenues to total 4,000bn ROL ($117.2 million), the money collected for the 25% in BCR to be bought by EBRD and IFC inclusive.