Czech utility ČEZ's net profit fell 60% year on year to CZK 10.8 billion in the first quarter

Energy company ČEZ's net profit fell 60 percent year on year to CZK 10.8 billion in the first quarter of this year. Operating revenue, by contrast, rose by around 23 percent to CZK 93.4 billion. The figures come from data published by the company today. It also announced that the ČEZ board of directors is proposing a record dividend of CZK 117 per share from last year's profit. The general meeting will decide on the proposal on June 26. The previous highest dividend was paid in 2009, at CZK 53 per share. The state is ČEZ's majority shareholder, holding around 70 percent of the company's shares through the Ministry of Finance. If the dividend proposal is approved, shareholders would receive around CZK 63 billion, of which CZK 44 billion would go to the state.

One reason for this year's sharp drop in profit, as well as for the proposed high dividend, was ČEZ's record profit last year, when net profit reached CZK 78.4 billion. „The proposal (for the dividend) represents a payout of 80 percent of the ČEZ Group's consolidated profit for 2022, adjusted for extraordinary effects, and therefore sits at the upper limit of the company's current dividend policy,“ said ČEZ Chairman of the Board and CEO Daniel Beneš.