Ekonom: ČEZ shares popular among US investors

Prague, March 20 (CTK) - American investors trust the shares of Czech power utility CEZ more than European ones, the biggest minority shareholders being American Funds with 2.6 percent and Vanguard with 1.58 percent, weekly Ekonom said on its website Wednesday.

In Europe, CEZ's significant shareholders are the state pension fund of Norway and mutual fund ING, Ekonom said.

CEZ is majority owned by the state. The Finance Ministry holds about 70 percent of shares.

According to Ekonom, northern American and British mutual and pension funds hold an overwhelming part of 30 percent of CEZ freely traded shares.

The share of investors from the euro zone is, however, low. Only one of them, namely the mutual fund of financial group ING, is among the 15 biggest minority shareholders of CEZ, Ekonom said.

Pension funds of teachers from Texas and Ohio and South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance hold stakes amounting to tenths of percent, Ekonom noted.

The CEZ group's net profit last year fell by 1.5 percent year-on-year to Kc40.2bn.

According to analyst Josef Nemy of Komercni banka, CEZ shares dropped to a new low since August 2005 on Tuesday. Wednesday they firmed sightly, rising by 0.09 percent to Kc564.50.