Commerzbank AG (CRZBY)

[Enterprising Investor]

Commerzbank: Need "comfortable" capital before paying dividend (2/13/14)

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Commerzbank wants to ensure its capital position is solid before paying out any net profit to shareholders as a dividend, its chief executive said on Thursday.

"We first want to have the capital situation at the bank as comfortable as possible before we pay out a dividend," Martin Blessing told a news conference on the lender's 2013 results.

Earlier on Thursday, Germany's second biggest bank dampened any hope it might pay a dividend for its 2014 financial year, though few analysts had expected one anyway.

Blessing also told the news conference that variable compensation paid to staff for 2013 would be slightly higher than in 2012. (Reporting by Thomas Atkins and Arno Schuetze; Writing by Jonathan Gould; Editing by Victoria Bryan)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/commerzbank-results-captial-idUSL5N0LI27720140213