Business briefs
Foreign owners of Czech companies are expected to repatriate a record 70 billion crowns in profits this year. The biggest dividend will by paid by CSOB to its Belgian parent bank, KBC.
Foreign owners of Czech companies are expected to repatriate a record 70 billion crowns in profits this year. The biggest dividend will by paid by CSOB to its Belgian parent bank, KBC. CSOB noted a marked increase in lending, especially through payment cards and said it had provided individuals and small businesses with a volume of loans 51 per cent higher than in the previous year. Meanwhile, the largest Czech retail bank, Ceska sporitelna, will pay a dividend of 4.6 billion crowns and Phillip Morris CR 4.3 billion crowns, much of which will also go to foreign owners, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes reports.
Top managers of the Cerpo pipeline company are being investigating for having allegedly "tunnelled" the company by selling 40 million litres of gasoline to the company Czech Energospace - and then buying it back for 60 million crowns less. Czech Energospace is owned by a former manager of Cepro, Pavel Zidek,
Figures compiled by the state Statistical Office show that prices of basic foodstuffs like sugar and rice have remained virtually unchanged since the Czech Republic's entry into the European Union, despite warnings to the contrary by some domestic importers. Meat, milk and bread prices have also remained steady, the Statistical Office said.
Shares in the pharmaceutical company Zentiva are expected to be priced at 400 to 525 crowns, when the company launches its initial public offering, or IPO, later this year. It would be the first-ever IPO on the sleepy Prague Stock Exchange since it opened in 1993.
