At the Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of Bank of Cyprus Ltd which took place on 25th April 2001, the Chairman of the Group announced that the results for the first quarter of 2001 will be published on 17th May 2001 together with the Financial Report, in accordance with the requirements of the Athens Stock Exchange and in compliance with the new International Accounting Standard Number 39.Based on the preliminary results, which are not anticipated to be different from the final results for the quarter, profit before tax for the three months ended 31 March 2001, registered an increase of about 32% against the corresponding period of 2000.Profit after tax registered an increase of the order of 40%. As regards the whole year 2001, it is expected that the net profit after tax will continue to be significantly higher than that for the year 2000.