Analysts estimate a 71.7% drop of the net earnings for BCR in 2009

According to Mediafax, analysts contacted by Reuters for a poll on estimating the earnings of Austrian group Erste Bank for the year 2009, predict a 71.7% drop in BCR"s net profit, from 240 million Euros in 2008, to 68 million Euros in 2009.

Analysts expect BCR to post a net loss of EUR 3 million in Q4 2009, down from a net profit of EUR 30 million in Q4 2008.

Forecasts for the 2009 profit of BCR vary from EUR 57 million to EUR 82 million.

Analysts expect Erste Group Bank (EBS), the majority shareholder of BCR, to post a net profit of EUR 918 million Euros in 2009, up 6.7% from 860 million Euros in 2008, in spite of an expected doubling of its writedowns 2.02 Billion Euros, compared to 1.07 billion Euros in 2008.

The Austrian group is expected to report a 5.4% increase in interest revenues from EUR 4.91 billion to 5.17 billion Euros, and an 11% decline in commissions revenues, from 1.97 billion Euros to 1.75 billion Euros, of the year 2009.

For 2010, analysts estimate a net profit of 824 million Euros for Erste, due to the higher cost of risk insurance, estimated at over two billion Euros.

Interest revenues are expected to increase slightly in 2010 to 5.37 billion Euros, and revenues from commissions are expected to increase to 1.79 billion Euros. The poll was made between February 17th - February 22nd, and Erste scheduled the release of its annual statement for Friday.

Respondents in the poll include analysts from Cheuvreux, Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, KBC Securities, Morgan Stanley, Raiffeisen Centrobank orUniCredit.