Politics govern PZU dividend payout decision today

The meeting three weeks ago was interrupted by the Treasury Ministry who demanded proceeding be postponed in order to calculate the divided PZU is to pay out. The Treasury Ministry refuses to say whether it expects a larger or a smaller dividend than the proposed 50% of the net profit which exceeded zl.2.69 billion. "We will reveal our proposal to the shareholders today," stated Agnieszka Dluska from the Ministry's press office. The Treasury Ministry will have to make a difficult decision since, on the one hand, it counts on the dividend from PZU to bring a substantial part of this year's revenues from dividends planned for zl.3 billion. But, on the other hand, it is under constant pressure from influential Law and Justice (PiS) politicians, such as Jacek Kurski, who believe that the whole profit should stay in the company in order to avoid paying out a dividend to Eureko, PZU's minority shareholder which is in conflict with the State Treasury. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 8) E.B.