BRE Bank to cut personnel by 17%
BRE Bank, Poland's seventh largest bank and one of the most active players on the capital markets, decided to cut its 2,976 strong workforce by 500 people, or 16.8% between September 2002 and March 2003, in order to cut its costs and improve its net result next year. The bank said that macroeconomic and unfavourable trends on the capital markets stood behind its decision. We believe, however, that the true reason for implementing the cost-cutting scheme were BRE Bank's risky investments, which have worsened its financial condition and sent the bank's share price sharply down this year. This year, the bank lost PLN 60mn (USD 14.6mn) on Elektrim's shares and further PLN 60mn on Szeptel's shares. To make things worse, the failure of the IPO of the media company ITI Holdings made it impossible for the bank to cash in on the sale of its stock in the company. Last week, the bank said it would consider a revision of its 2002 net result forecasts. The bank originally planned to earn PLN 408mn, more than PLN 336.2mn recorded last year. BRE Bank's share price fell from PLN 140 in March to PLN 70 yesterday. kp,bb
Źródło:Polski IntelliNews
