DEALER Wood & Company Financial Services was the top dealer on the Prague Stock Exchange in July, with deals worth 49.1 billion Kc. Patria Finance followed with 40.4 billion Kc and Ceská sporitelna with 25.5 billion Kc. Wood & Company was also the top dealer in April.

POWER Electricity giant CEZ netted 10.9 billion Kc in the first half, a more than 100 percent increase from the same period last year, the company announced at an Aug. 1 press conference. The company attributed the boost in profit to collection of dividends worth 4 billion Kc.

BUDGET The state budget ended in a surplus of 10.3 billion Kc in July, the best figure for July in the last eight years and the month's first surplus since 1999, according to the Finance Ministry. Revenues totaled 497.2 billion Kc and expenditures equaled 486.9 billion Kc.

PROFIT Government bailout agency Ceská konsolidacní agentura posted the best economic results in its history in July, generating a profit of 1.71 billion Kc compared with a 1.44 billion Kc loss in the same period last year.

INVESTMENT Mutual fund manager Pioneer Investments enlarged its offer on the Czech market by 17 new mutual funds. It currently offers a total of 79 foreign funds in addition to five Czech funds.

INCREASE Ceská pojistovna netted 2.8 billion Kc during the first half of 2005, an increase of 656 million Kc over the first period last year. According to the company the sharp increase is mainly due to growth on the capital markets.

BANKS Czech banks have seen record profits and are in the best shape in history, Czech News Agency reported Aug. 1. The largest Czech bank, CSOB, reported the best first-half results with 78 percent growth in net profits, totaling 6.2 billion Kc. Komercní banka announced an increase in profit for the first half of the year.

ACQUISITION GE Commercial Finance Real Estate Central Europe has acquired a portfolio of nonperforming loans worth tens of millions of euros from KONPO, a subsidiary of state agency ĺeská konsolidacní agentura. GE has been acquiring nonperforming loans in Central Europe since 2002 and is looking to build its portfolio throughout Europe.

AUTO Skoda Auto is expecting its 2005 gross profit to at least equal last year's record 4.8 billion Kc, company board chairman Detlef Wittig said Aug. 2. The automaker's sales have grown thanks to the introduction of new models of the Skoda Octavia.