Top dividends on the Bourse

Ten companies of the 30 that have so far announced they would disburse dividends out of last year’s profit offer yields above the average level of deposit interest rates, currently revolving around 6.5%.

Out of the 76 companies listed on the main market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, 22 have announced they would distribute dividends from 2010 profit. In addition, there are also eight important companies on RASDAQ that will do the same.

The total value of dividends the 30 companies propose to shareholders amount to 2.28bn lei (over 550m euros).

At current stock market prices, the most attractive dividends are offered by Zentiva București (SCD) drug maker and VAE Apcarom Buzău (APC) railway equipment producer, both with gross dividend yields of above 20%.

Next come two state-owned companies: Transgaz Mediaș (TGN) natural gas transmission company and Conpet Ploiești (COTE) oil product transmission company, which derived significant profits last year and have to award at least 90% of profits as dividends, compared with a rate of 50% from 2009 profit. Thus, the yield of the two companies’ dividends revolves around 11%.