The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has granted consent to PKO Bank Polski S.A. (Warsaw) for the purchase of 66.65% of shares in "Kredit Bank (Ukraine)", which belong to another Polish bank - Kredyt Bank S.A., according to the press service of "Kredit Bank (Ukraine)". According to the press service, PKO Bank Polski S.A. will become the main strategic investor of JSC "Kredit Bank (Ukraine)" and together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (28.2%) will continue the development of the Ukrainian bank.
PKO BP S.A. (Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna) is the largest Polish bank by asset size. It is the leader in the retail banking services market, holds 33% of the individual deposits market, 37% of the mortgage lending market, and services over 5.1 million individual accounts (36% of the total number). It also holds 25% of the small and medium enterprise servicing market (over 420 thousand accounts). It has the most extensive network of branches and offices among Polish banks, numbering about 1,300 institutions. The bank's system employs 36 thousand workers.
As of 31.03.2004, the balance sheet currency of PKO BP S.A. amounted to 86.8 billion zlotys, which exceeds the asset value of all commercial banks of Ukraine combined. The capital of PKO BP S.A. (taking into account the current year's profit and retained earnings from previous years) amounted to 6,393 million zlotys, the solvency ratio is 15.04%.
The net profit received by PKO BP S.A. in the first three months of 2004 amounted to 408 million zlotys, which is 23.4% higher than the profit for the analogous period of last year. It is the most profitable bank in the Polish banking system - according to the results of 2003, its net profit amounted to 1,228 million zlotys (over 50% of all profit received by Polish banks).