Slovenian bank NLB not planning to pay this dividend this year due to coronavirus

LJUBLJANA, April 2 (Reuters) – Slovenia’s largest bank NLB said on Thursday it was not currently planning to pay a dividend this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, it said it could decide to pay a dividend towards the end of 2020 or later “depending on further developments”.

The decision follows the European Central Bank’s recommendation, issued last week, that banks wait until at least October 2020 before paying dividends in order to boost their capacity to absorb losses and support lending during the pandemic.

NLB also said it was difficult to predict the impact of the outbreak on the bank because the situation is changing daily. However, Primoz Karpe, chairman of NLB’s supervisory board, said that “NLB group is in a very solid shape… therefore we believe that it will overcome this crisis successfully”.

In February, NLB reported a fall in group net profit of 5% in 2019 to 193.6 million euros ($209.94 million). Last year the bank paid a dividend of 7.13 euros per share. ($1 = 0.9222 euros) (Reporting By Marja Novak; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)