Poland's BRE Bank Very Likely to Pay Dividend from '12 Profit - CEO

WARSAW--Poland's BRE Bank SA (BRE.WA), a unit of Germany's Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE), is very likely to pay dividends from last year's profit, Chief Executive Cezary Stypulkowski said Thursday.

The bank won't pay a very high level of dividend, Mr. Stypulkowski told reporters, adding the payout will be "rather smaller than bigger."

In November, Poland's financial regulator called on banks for a second straight year to limit dividend payouts to 75% of 2012 earnings in order to shore up capital bases. The regulator only allows dividend payouts from banks that have a capital adequacy ratio of 12% and a core Tier 1 level of 9%, and which are expected to keep these ratios throughout 2013.

BRE improved it capital ratio in 2012 because it didn't pay a dividend on profits of 1.13 billion zlotys ($321 million). Mr. Stypulkowski said BRE met the regulator's capital criteria and can pay a dividend for 2012. Its profits for 2012 are "as expected," and will be similar to that of 2011, he said.

"On virtually every line of the profit and loss statement, the results are good or very good," he said.

Commerzbank holds 69.65% of shares in BRE.

Write to Patryk Wasilewski at [e-mail] and Marcin Sobczyk at [e-mail]

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