PLIVA TO PAY DIVIDENDS OF 10 KUNA PER SHARE

ZAGREB, June 8 (Hina) - The general assembly of the pharmaceutical company "Pliva" accepted a decision of the company's management to pay 10 kuna (1.176 dollars) per share from the 838.52 million kuna (approximately $100 million) of the net earnings registered in 1999. Thus, about 200 million kuna ($23.5 million) will be used to pay dividends.#L# This drug-manufacturing firm will allocate about 2.32 million kuna ($0.27 million) from the profit into the legal reserves. The rest will remain as the company's undistributed profit. This major Croatian pharmaceutical company registered the growth in 1999 for the fifth consecutive year despite unfavourable trends in the surroundings, Management Chairman Zeljko Covic told the Assembly on Thursday. Pliva has remained a leading pharmaceutical company in eastern and central Europe and the biggest drug producer in Croatia. There are plans for the further internationalisation and the restructuring of the firm as well as investments in research and development, Covic added. According to a business review, 1999 saw an increase in the total income of Pliva by 16.9 percent to 4.18 billion kuna (approximately $0.5 billion) compared to 1998. At the international markets Pliva gained 65.5 percent of its total incomes. Last year, Pliva bought three foreign pharmaceutical firms Farmacom, Mixis Genetics and Lachema. Covic said a strategy of the company until 2007 had been drafted and in accordance to it Pliva elaborated plans about which drug it is going to develop for certain markets. Of the present share-holders, 94.17 percent of them at the assembly adopted the decision on the distribution of last year's profit and accepted the management's and supervisory board's reports on Pliva's activities in 1999. The audit company of Pliva will be PriceWaterhouse Coopers(PWC). (hina) ms