DUBLIN, Ireland, June 11, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. ("AIB") (NYSE:AIB) is issuing the following update on trading before its half-year close period.
Growth in our Irish and British retail and commercial banking businesses continues to be excellent. In both islands we are growing faster than our competitors and we continue to target underlying double digit operating performance growth in these businesses. In Ireland we are winning a greater share of customers' business and in Britain we are gaining more customers within our chosen niches. The Capital Markets Division continues to display resilience in difficult market conditions. Performance in Poland is weaker, primarily due to the impact of sharp interest rate cuts on our deposit base.
Throughout our business, we relentlessly focus on productivity and expect to maintain a positive underlying gap between income and cost growth for the year 2003. The weakening of the US dollar, sterling and Polish zloty against the euro will give rise to an estimated negative currency impact of 4% on the translation of earnings from our non euro denominated businesses, despite an active hedging policy. Accordingly, we are now targeting low single digit growth in underlying adjusted Group earnings per share for 2003.