E-Malt.com News article: 1619

The largest Czech brewer Plzensky Prazdroj approved on September 30 to pay 1.96 billion Czech crowns ($71.85 million) in dividends, with its main owner SABMiller getting nearly all of it, Reuters reported. Prazdroj, the maker of Pilsner Urquell and the largest brewer in the beer-loving Czech Republic, posted a net profit of 1.64 billion crowns during the last fiscal year when it sold 9 million hectolitres of beer. The dividend is a combination of last year's entire profit and retained profits from past years, the company said in a statement. "Our long-term capital investment programme will continue to increase our production capacity," Prazdroj Chairman Steve Woodward said in the statement. Prazdroj paid an extraordinary dividend equal to the same amount in March. Prazdroj's fiscal year ends in March. SABMiller holds a 97.6 % stake in the unit. It paid $629 million for the brewer through two instalments since 1999 when it first bought into the firm.

30 September, 2003