Ceske radiokomunikace's CEO said yesterday that the company would pay out about two-thirds of its 2000 profits in a dividend. He did not provide a dividend or profit figure. We estimate that most of last year’s profits will come from a one-off CZK 22 bil. compensation to the parent company for the dilution in the cellular operator RadioMobil (from 51% to 39%). Two-thirds of the after-tax compensation revenues amount to some CZK 10 bil., or CZK 325 per CR share. Such a dividend was talked about at the end of last year, but it is reassuring to have it confirmed. The dilution in CR’s stake in RadioMobil will occur in Q1 or Q2 of 2001, but the compensation will be accounted for in the 2000 figures. The CEO also rejected earlier reports that the company could be split prior to privatization. He said that this idea was floated by the government's privatization advisor, and implied that it had been rejected. Including the dividend, we value the stock at CZK 1,650. We recommend accumulating the stock at these levels (taking advantage of its volatility), mainly given the dividend and expectations of an attractive dividend yield.
(Ondřej Daťka)