Romanian lender BRD SocGen to pay gross dividend of 0.59205 lei/share from the net profit over 2007

The bank's net profit stood at 917 million lei last year, a 40 percent increase from the year before on a 44 percent larger loan portfolio.

Shareholders agreed in April last year to allot 45 percent of the distributed net profit in 2006 (569 million lei of the total 656 million lei) to pay dividends which cumulated 265 million lei. Therefore, the dividend proposed for the 2007 profit is 61.2 percent higher than that for the previous year.

Shareholders will meet on April 22 to tackle the update of the board's structure. Another meeting will take place on May 9 to register those shareholders to benefit from the dividend.

The parent-company Societe Generale controlled 58.32 percent of BRD's shares at the end of last year and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development owned 5 percent. The country's five investment funds known as SIFs had almost 5 percent each.

BRD Soc-Gen has a share capital of 696.90 million lei divided into 696.90 million shares at a face value of 1 leu. The lender's market value stands at 14.36 billion lei. Its shares were last traded at 20.60 lei.

Source: NewsIn