UPDATE 1-Czech Komercni 2006 net profit gain matches fcast

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Komercni Banka , the biggest listed Czech lender, posted a 2.3 percent gain in 2006 net profit on Wednesday, as provisioning charges against its expanding retail market lending offset healthy revenue growth.

Audited group net profit came in at 9.12 billion crowns ($424 million), compared with an average forecast of 9.17 billion crowns in a Reuters poll of eight analysts.

Restating the figures to the consolidation base from 2005 put the bank's pro forma net profit at 9.09 billion crowns.

Komercni shares fell 1.9 percent to 3,480 crowns by 0850 GMT, extending their retreat from a record high of 3,675 crowns on Monday but outperforming a 2.2 percent drop in the Prague bourse's blue-chip index PX .

Komercni said its board of directors decided to propose to the supervisory board a dividend payment of 5.7 billion crowns, which translates into a payout of 150 crowns per share, down from 250 crowns a share paid on the 2005 profit.

Komercni, 60-percent owned by France's Societe Generale , has benefited from robust growth in the European Union country's economy, reporting 15 percent growth in business loans and a 27 percent rise in credit extended to consumers.

Net interest income, a figure closely watched by analysts as a gauge of underlying performance, jumped 10.3 percent year-on-year to 16.16 billion crowns, almost matching the average market consensus forecast of 16.20 billion.

Overall group revenues rose 7.3 percent year-on-year to 26.30 billion crowns, a touch above the 26.24 billion forecast.

The bank's loan-loss provisions nearly doubled, reflecting last year's reversals on corporate credit exposure and a fast growth in mass retail market lending this year.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]