Depfa Bank, Germany's largest public-sector finance bank, with its headquarters in Dublin, has reported a 21 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to €307 million in 2002.

The bank said its focus on public-sector clients had enabled it to buck the negative trend across the international banking sector and that earnings in the current year were at record levels.

The bank reaffirmed its profit forecasts for this year, signalling that, after tax, it should yield profits of €250 million, which would represent a 20 per cent return on equity. In 2002, its after-tax earnings rose by 72 per cent to €236 million.

It reported a 24 per cent increase in total revenues to €408 million. Net commission income rose to €32 million, while the group incurred trading losses of €21 million, of which €1 million was from securities trading.

Administrative expenditure grew by €1 million to €97 million, while the bank's cost-to-income ratio remained relatively low at 23.9 per cent.

Depfa said all of the objectives of the newly established bank had been met in recent months and it was proposing a dividend of €1 per share for investors.

The bank is one of the leading providers of public finance operating in Europe, the US, Japan and Hong Kong.

It provides a range of services such as budget financing to the funding of public infrastructure products and investment banking solutions for public sector authorities.

The bank moved to Dublin's International Financial Services Centre last year following the division of the company into the public finance bank and a property bank.

Depfa is the third-biggest financial institution in Ireland behind AIB and Bank of Ireland. At the end of 2002, it had total assets of €143 billion.