Czech Komercni may raise dividends if capital firm

...Officer Pavel Cejka said on Wednesday.

Komercni, 60-percent owned by France's Societe Generale , plans to pay 150 crowns per share on the 2006 net profit of 9.12 billion crowns ($424 million), after paying a record dividend of 250 crowns a share on the 2005 earnings.

"We are targeting a Tier 1 capital ratio of about 10 percent. If we are significantly above that level, the excess could be distributed to shareholders through dividends," Cejka told a news conference on Wednesday's 2006 earnings release.

"At the moment, we are not planning an interim dividend," he told Reuters after the presentation.

Tier 1 or core capital -- the core measure of a bank's financial strength -- fell as a ratio of Komercni's risk-weighted assets to 10.6 percent at the end of last year from 13.7 percent at end-2005.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]