According to the company, however, it is relevant for the dividend policy that after adjusting for extraordinary non-monetary effects, net profit increased by 27 percent year-on-year to CZK 18.7 billion.
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According to the company’s CFO Martin Novák, net profit in the fourth quarter will be burdened by provisions due to the sale of CEZ’s Romanian assets. According to him, the sale will raise money for debt reduction, development and a higher dividend for shareholders.
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The current estimate of the negative impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the full-year economy is approximately three billion crowns.
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Electricity sales to end customers decreased by six percent to 24.3 TWh. Gas sales to end customers fell by seven percent to 6.2 TWh. Heat sales also fell, by three percent to 15,700 terajoules (TJ).
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In the three quarters of this year, CEZ Group’s electricity production fell by six percent to 42.4 terawatt hours (TWh) for traditional sources, which account for the vast majority of total electricity production. According to the group, the main reasons for the decrease were the rise in the prices of emission allowances, the fall in electricity prices due to the covid-19 pandemic and the timing of outages in production sources.
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The year-on-year decrease in production was also due to the decline in obsolete coal-fired power plants, in particular the closure of the Prunéřov 1 power plant. Coal mining also fell by 28 percent year-on-year to 10.7 million tonnes.
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“This year’s expected net profitability of 23 billion crowns indicates – when implementing a similar payout ratio as this year – a current dividend paid in 2021 in the range of 41 to 42 crowns per share,” said Fio banka analyst Jan Raška. From last year’s profit, ČEZ paid a dividend of 34 crowns per share before tax to shareholders this year.
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CEZ is the largest Czech energy company. The majority shareholder of the company is the state, which holds about 70 percent of the shares through the Ministry of Finance. At the end of the third quarter of this year, the number of CEZ Group employees was approximately 31,900, which was approximately one percent less year-on-year.
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