Indonesia's BCA 2008 unaudited net profit up

Mon Mar 2, 2009 11:21am GMT  

JAKARTA, March 2 (Reuters) - Indonesia's second-largest lender, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BBCA.JK) (BCA), posted a 67 percent increase in its 2008 unaudited net profit, the bank said on Monday, on the back of strong loan growth. 

BCA's unaudited net profit stood at 7.5 trillion rupiah ($625.5 million) on a net interest income of 19.28 trillion rupiah. 

The results, published on the central bank's website (www.bi.go.id), were unaudited and non-consolidated. 

On Jan. 7, the bank's vice president Jahja Setiaatmadja told Reuters that the bank's lending grew by around 36.5 percent in 2008 and warned that loan growth was likely to slow to around 15 percent this year. 

Analysts polled by Reuters Estimates had forecast the bank would book a net profit of 5.30 trillion rupiah in 2008 and 5.87 trillion rupiah this year. 

BCA's shares closed down 2.13 percent on Monday, broadly in line with the main index .JKSE, which fell 2.28 percent. ($1 = 11,990 rupiah)

(Reporting by Andreas Ismar; Editing by Ed Davies)