March 23 (SeeNews) - Croatia's largest lender Zagrebacka Banka [ZSE:ZABA], a unit of Italy's UniCredit, said on Monday it will retain its 2019 net profit, as the Croatian central bank has demanded in order to protect the stability of the country's financial system amid the coronavirus spread.
Zagrebacka Banka (ZABA) made the announcement in a statement filed with the Zagreb bourse.
On Friday, the central bank said it has barred local lenders from distributing dividend and other remuneration for last year, as part of broader measures aimed to ensure that the liquidity of the banking system will support the domestic economy amidst the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
The central bank said it believes that banks should contribute to the efforts for alleviating the social and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this month, ZABA said it plans to distribute a dividend of 4.83 kuna ($0.69/0.63 euro) per share from its 2019 net profit, down from 5.79 kuna per share it paid out last year. According to that plan, ZABA was to allocate for dividend payments a total of 1.546 billion kuna from its 1.549 billion kuna net profit for last year and retain the remainder. The dividend payment proposal was to be put to the vote at ZABA's regular shareholders' meeting scheduled for April 8.
Last year, ZABA allocated to dividend distribution 1.854 billion kuna from its 1.857 billion kuna net profit reported for 2018.
The bank's shares traded 6.0% lower at 47 kuna by 14:24 CET on Monday on the Zagreb bourse.
(1 euro = 7.60823 kuna)
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