Intralot, the world’s second-largest lottery systems provider, will pay an interim 0.11-euro dividend per share this year, it said yesterday. The dividend, which covers the first eight months of the year, is lower than the interim 0.15-euro dividend Intralot paid last year, and translates to a yield of 1.9 percent based on Monday’s closing price of 5.82 euros a share. Greek companies typically pay an interim dividend for eight or nine months. Intralot has been expanding aggressively in recent years to take advantage of the liberalization of world gaming markets, clinching IT and betting operation deals on all five continents. The provider targets net profits of 125 million euros and sales of 1.15 billion euros this year. (Reuters)

Governments across Eastern Europe moved to boost confidence in the banking system by guaranteeing bank deposits to keep the global financial crisis from spreading. The Czech Republic and Latvia raised guarantees on household bank deposits to 50,000 euros ($68,765), in line with a move last week by the European Union and following decisions yesterday by Poland, Estonia and Romania. Lithuania passed legislation today raising the limit to 100,000 euros, while Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary have offered unlimited protection. The former communist region’s policymakers aim to bolster financial stability and lessen the impact of the deepening credit crisis. Governments, including the USA, UK, Ireland, Iceland, Belgium and Spain, were forced to bail out banks. Eastern European governments say their banking systems are sound. “You need Western Europe to improve to help improve Eastern Europe,” Lars Christensen, the chief analyst at Danske Bank A/S said. “We can see relief in the stock markets, money market rates coming down” after the decision. “The good news is that the Eastern European banking system is Western-owned.” In Poland, the biggest of the European Union’s eastern members, the central bank said it is boosting liquidity in the banking system by conducting open market operations of up to three months. (Bloomberg)

Turkish Airlines says it will buy 105 new planes from Boeing Co and Airbus. The national airline says it has asked Airbus and Boeing Co to submit proposals for 35 double-aisle and 70 single-aisle planes. The airline says in a statement released yesterday that its passenger numbers have increased 150 percent in the past four years, and that it is in good financial shape despite the global economic crisis. It says it wants the deliveries to start in the second half of 2010. (AP)

Romania’s second-largest bank, BRD, controlled by France’s Societe Generale, reported a 52.2 percent increase in nine-month net profits yesterday. BRD posted net profits of 1.038 billion lei ($373.4 million). It said in a statement results were preliminary. Final results would be released on November 10. It said its profits were boosted mainly by the sale of a stake in insurer Asiban to French insurer Groupama. (Reuters)