Intercontinental Bank Q1 pretax profit drops

Intercontinental Bank (INTERCO.LG) said on Friday its first quarter pre-tax profit dropped to 196 million naira ($1.3 million) from 1.81 billion naira a year ago.

Intercontinental's gross earnings for the period rose to 23.3 billion naira from 19.6 billion naira a year earlier, the bank said in a filing to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The bank, one of the nine lenders rescued in a $4 billion bailout by the central bank last year, had earlier reported a 238 billion naira pre-tax loss for the 10 months to December 2009.

(Corrects comparative figures)

LAGOS July 9 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Intercontinental Bank (INTERCO.LG: Quote) said on Friday its first quarter pre-tax profit dropped to 196 million naira ($1.3 million) from 12.3 billion naira a year ago.

The group's gross earnings for the period fell to 23.3 billion naira from 76.1 billion naira(Not 19.6 as earlier mentioned) a year earlier, the bank said.

The bank, one of the nine lenders rescued in a $4 billion bailout by the central bank last year, earlier reported a 238 billion naira pre-tax loss for the 10 months to December 2009. (Reporting by Oludare Mayowa and Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Tume Ahemba)