BCR, the biggest bank on the market in terms of assets, will not disburse dividends to shareholders from its 2009 income and will use the money to increase its share capital. The bank last year made net income worth 237.97m RON (around 56m euros) in line with Romanian accounting standards, down almost 79% from 2008. Of this sum, 237.74m RON (the current equivalent of almost 58m euros) will be used to strengthen the bank's capital. In the wake of this operation, pending approval in the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (EGM) convened for April 22, BCR's capital will climb to more than one billion RON (251m euros). The face value of a share will thus rise from 1 RON to 1.3 RON. The decision has already been discussed in principle by Austria's Erste and the five financial investment companies (SIFs) that hold BCR stock and will be validated by the EGM. Pursuant to the privatisation contract, the government signed with Erste in 2006, BCR should in the first three years after privatisation grant dividends accounting for at least 40% in net income calculated in line with IFRS, but not more than the net income in line with RAS.

BCR, the biggest bank on the market in terms of assets, will not disburse dividends to shareholders from its 2009 income and will use the money to increase its share capital. The bank last year made net income worth 237.97m RON (around 56m euros) in line with Romanian accounting standards, down almost 79% from 2008. Of this sum, 237.74m RON (the current equivalent of almost 58m euros) will be used to strengthen the bank's capital. In the wake of this operation, pending approval in the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (EGM) convened for April 22, BCR's capital will climb to more than one billion RON (251m euros). The face value of a share will thus rise from 1 RON to 1.3 RON. The decision has already been discussed i