Oesterreichische Laenderbank AG[OLBV.VI] expects to maintain its dividend and to record a
moderate rise in profits this year after the 181.5 mln
schilling net profit made in 1986, General Director Gerhard
Wagner said.
    Wagner told a news conference that last year's 34.3 pct
rise in net profit from 135.1 mln in 1985 was largely due to
greater domestic business and wider margins on schilling
interest rates.
    The bank, Austria's third largest, raised its 1986 dividend
to 12 pct of its 1.5 billion schilling nominal share capital
from 10 pct on capital of 1.35 billion in 1985.
    Announcing the 1986 results, Wagner said: "We will endeavour
to maintain the higher dividend in 1987."
    Laenderbank's balance sheet total rose five pct to 197.7
billion schillings against 8.1 pct growth in 1985. Foreign
currency business last year accounted for some 37 pct of
balance sheet total compared with about 41 pct in 1985.
    Wagner blamed the realtive shrinkage of foreign business
chiefly on the dollar's fall against the schilling, which is
effectively pegged to the mark. The dollar's weakness had wiped
some 8.9 billion schillings off the balance sheet total.
    Wagner declined to give an exact figure for profits from
the bank's London branch, which opened in April 1985, but said
that it came close to one mln stg.
    On schilling lending, profit on interest had risen 18 pct
to 2.19 billion schillings while commission earnings climbed
8.7 pct to 738.9 mln.
    According to the 1987 federal budget, the state is due to
lower its stake 60 pct in Laenderbank, probably to 51 pct.
Wagner said the exact timing of the move depended on the state.
 Reuter
