UPDATE 1-Slovak gas firm SPP to pay 660 mln euros dividend

* Dividend cut to 660 mln euro from 797 mln

* Profit up 1 percent in 2008

* Gas transit up 3 percent

(Adds details, background)

BRATISLAVA, April 28 (Reuters) - Slovakia's dominant natural gas company SPP will pay 660 million euros in dividends this year to its shareholders GDF Suez (GSZ.PA), E.ON (EONGn.DE) and the Slovak government, the company said on Tuesday.

France's GDF Suez and Germany's E.ON run SPP through a joint 49 percent stake that carries management rights. The government holds the remaining 51 percent.

SPP, which operates a pipeline carrying around 70 percent of Europe's consumption of Russian natural gas, paid 796.7 million euros in dividends last year.

It said after-tax profit totalled 640.6 million euros last year, slightly more than a net profit of 634 million in 2007. SPP moved 76 billion of cubic metres of gas last year, an annual increase of 3 percent. It said its 2008 results were affected by the higher oil price, which also boosted the cost of gas on world markets.

SPP booked a pre-tax loss of 49.6 million euros last year after the Slovak state regulator rejected its requests to reflect the higher cost of gas in its prices for households.

"In the industrial segment ... SPP had to face first losses of customers, who (could) chose an alternative natural gas supplier," it said in a statement. "We expect that this development will have an impact on the sales volume mainly in 2009."

Last year's result was positively influenced by cost management, the favourable development of foreign exchange rates and expanded activities in the international gas market, the company said. (Reporting by Martin Santa; Writing by Peter Laca; Editing by David Holmes)