BRATISLAVA, May 4, (WEBNOVINY) — Slovak Telekom will pay from last year’s taxed profit 92 million euros in dividends. The government will thus receive 45.1 million euros as its share from the telecommunications company, in which it owns 49-percent through the Ministry of Economy and the National Property Fund. Spokesman for the Ministry of Economy Stanislav Jurikovic said for SITA news agency that the government wanted the company to pay a total dividend of 102 million euros of the net profit, which the majority shareholder, German group Deutsche Telekom rejected.
Slovakia already had a problem with dividends while last year, when Deutsche Telekom disagreed with the government’s proposal to pay dividends from unappropriated earnings totaling 258 million euros. In July last year, the National Property Fund requested convening an extraordinary general meeting, where the German shareholder agreed to pay dividends, but only in the amount of 130 million euros, of which the government was to obtain 63.7 million euros. But the government still demanded the payment of an extraordinary dividend from unappropriated earnings from previous years, which would bring it additional 63 million euros. However, Deutsche Telekom repeatedly refused the proposal, at other extraordinary general meetings in September and November of last year and again in January of this year.
According to Jurikovic, at Monday’s Annual General Meeting, the government no longer returned to this theme, as it did not request payment of dividends from unappropriated earnings from previous periods. Sylvia Braunle of corporate communications at Deutsche Telekom said for SITA news agency that discussions are ongoing with other shareholders of Slovak Telekom to find an acceptable solution to a long-term dividend policy of the company. „We are still open to discussions with the Slovak government and with the National Property Fund on the best use of the resources of Slovak Telekom in the future,“ said Braunle.
SITA
