TALLINN - Suprema, a leading investment bank, has predicted that Hansabank would pay a hefty dividend for 2004, as much as 33 percent more than the previous year even adjusted for the share split.
Bank analysts forecast that Hansabank, the largest financial institution in the Baltics and the largest corporation by market capitalization, would pay a dividend of 2.65 kroons (0.172 euro) per share. The bank paid 8 kroons per share for fiscal 2003 but then split its shares fourfold, which would translate into a 2 kroon per share dividend in current terms.
Under its stated dividend policy, Hansabank pays out no more than a third of its net earnings of the preceding year.
Trading on the bank's shares has been bullish over recent days and finished the week ending Jan. 14, 0.7 percent higher at 155.37 kroons. Turnover amounted to 283 million kroons.
"Hansapank's weekly rise was not very big 's the 10 euro mark remains a barrier 's but I can't tell whether temporarily or for a longer while," Hansabank Markets trader Romet Tepper told the Baltic News Service. "Besides, major investors have begun profit-taking."
Industry-wide, Estonian banks flourished last year. The total profit of commercial banks for 2004 amounted to 2.4 billion kroons, a 63 percent jump from the year before, according to Bank of Estonia data.
Banks' combined total assets grew by 34.7 billion kroons, or 35.2 percent, during the year to reach 133.5 billion kroons as of Dec. 31. Loans issued by commercial banks as of the end of the year totaled 92.5 billion kroons, which is 33.8 percent more than the previous year, bank data showed.
