Moroccan bank BMCE's 2007 net climbs 55 pct

RABAT, March 19 (Reuters) - Morocco's second-biggest private bank, BMCE (BMCE.CS), reported a 55-percent rise in 2007 net profit on Wednesday, helped by assets sales and strong growth in client deposits and loans.

Net income rose to 1.4 billion Moroccan Dirhams ($192.5 million) from 905 million, the bank said in a statement.

Revenues rose 24 percent to 4.5 billion dirhams.

BMCE has more than 10 subsidiaries specialised in various financial and banking segments in Morocco and branches and joint ventures abroad.

Most of its growth in 2007 came from businesses in Morocco, where the financial sector is returning to health after BMCE and its rivals unshackled themselves from bad loans.

Reforms to make lending and borrowing more transparent are helping lower interest rates and fuelling demand for credit as more Moroccans borrow to buy homes and consumer goods.

Asset sales boosted the results, including the sale of a 5 percent stake in BMCE to Spain's Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo (CAM) under a partnership agreement.

BMCE said it improved its credit risk cover to 87.4 percent last year from 80.3 percent in 2006.

Client deposits and consumer credits grew 17 percent and 100 percent respectively, boosting its market share.

BMCE said its shares were up 125 percent at 2,815 dirhams on the Casablanca stock market for the whole year of 2007, while the benchmark MASI index was up 34 percent.

BMCE stock has not changed on early trade on Wednesday at 3,250 dirhams.

(Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi; Editing by Jason Neely)