ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - ATEBank said that its 2008 targets are
achievable, but that the uncertainty on equity markets will likely impact its
trading gains.
In a conference call on the bank's 2007 full year results, management said
the first few months of 2008 show that growth rates are on the upward trend.
They expect full year 2008 net interest income and their fees figures to post an
improvement from 2007 values, making their full year targets reasonable.
However, trading gains over the next year are expected to be impacted by the
continuing turmoil on equity markets, which management does not see normalizing
until the second half of 2008.
This will likely slow down the bank's gradual disposal of its stakes in
various companies, such as its 2.6 pct stake in Hellenic Petroleum, 4.1 pct
stake in Hellenic Exchanges and 2.24 pct stake in the Bank of Piraeus.
Management also highlighted its key inroads and strategies in hiring
qualified employees to promote its focus on small and medium sized business loan
(SME) growth.
In this regard, ATEBank will try to standardize SME products and target
medium-sized companies through a qualified employee strike force which will
travel to high-performance branches in Athens and Thessaloniki to increase their
customer base.
Source: Euro2day.gr Newswire
cheryl.novak@thomson.com
cn/cmr
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