said March 25 that its board of directors proposed notto pay a dividend on common shares for 2015, even though the lender posted afull-year net profitof 120.3 billion Kazakh tenge.

However,the board proposed to allocate up to 338.2 million tenge for the payment ofdividends on preferred shares and convertible preferred shares.

The proposalsare subject to shareholder approval at the bank's April 22 annual shareholdermeeting.

HalykBank also said it intends to exchange its outstanding preferred and convertiblepreferred shares for common shares by Dec. 31. The exchange ratio and compensationto be paid to holders of preferred and convertible preferred shares will becalculated based on the market price of common shares on the day of the annualshareholder meeting.

As of March 25, US$1 wasequivalent to 346.73 Kazakh tenge.