Bank of Ireland Group said this morning its first-half 2002 pre-tax profits before exceptionals rose 10 per cent to €602 million.
The bank predicted a strong finish to the year despite tough market conditions.
Chief Executive Mr Michael Soden said he expected the bank could still deliver "high single-digit EPS growth" for 2002.
"We still believe we're on course to do that, having come through a very difficult six-month period, where we've delivered low double-digit growth," he said.
The bank reported that earnings per share - excluding goodwill and exceptionals - rose 10.6 per cent to 49.9 cents.
Ireland's second biggest bank, rebuffed last month in a bid to take over number six British bank Abbey National, also said it remained open to "suitable acquisitions in our chosenmarkets".
Mr Soden said Abbey had been a "once in a lifetime" opportunity but Bank of Ireland would actively look at acquisitions in a range of €100 million to €2 billion in its "footprint" market of the UK and Ireland.
"It would be more likely to be in the €100 million to €500 million line but if something came up in the range of a couple of billion we would still take a very hard look at it," he said.
The bank, Ireland's second-biggest by market capitalisation, said its pre-tax excluding exceptionals rose to €602 million. The exceptionals were €13 million for disposal of its Active Business Services unit and another €nine million for terminating a joint venture with Perot Systems and reorganising its IT business.
The bank said total assets in the first half rose 7 per cent to €89.7 billion over the previous half year while its tier one capital ratio - a gauge of a bank's financial soundness - was steady at 7.4 per cent.
But the bank said its asset management and securities services operations had been hit by volatile equities markets. The value of assets under management fell €two billion to€45 billion.