Sollers shareholders approve dividends of 89 rubles per share for 2023
MOSCOW. June 25 (Interfax) - The shareholders of PJSC Sollers at the annual general meeting approved dividends of 89 rubles per share for 2023, the company said in a disclosure.
"To distribute profits based on the results for the 2023 fiscal year by paying dividends in cash totaling 89 rubles per ordinary share of PJSC Sollers. Set July 5, 2024, as the dividend record date," the company said in the disclosure.
The shareholders also approved a budget of $920,000 to remunerate the members of the board of directors for participating in the board's operations.
The AGM occurred on June 24 in the form of absentee voting.
Sollers' board of directors at a meeting on May 3 recommended paying out dividends of 89 rubles per share for the previous year. The group's financial indicators allow for paying out dividends and simultaneously continuing implementation of the investment program, the company's press service said regarding the decision.
Sollers returned to paying dividends last year after a ten-year hiatus, paying out final dividends of 45.39 rubles per share for 2022. The automaker said that the decision to pay out dividends was owing to several years of retained earnings.
PJSC Sollers CEO Nikolai Sobolev last July said that the group was interested in "normal, market" dividend yield for its shareholders and intended to focus on the indicator.
"As a joint stock company, we naturally want our shareholders to have a normal, market dividend yield. Therefore, among other matters, we are focusing specifically on dividend yield indicators," Sobolev told Interfax in response to whether dividend payments are possible in 2024.
Sollers posted revenue of 82.3 billion rubles, net profit of 4.9 billion rubles, and EBITDA of 7.5 billion rubles to International Financial Reporting Standards for 2023. The company had overall debt of 46.5 billion rubles at the end of 2023, including short-term liabilities over 37.9 billion rubles and long-term liabilities of around 8.6 billion rubles.
PJSC Sollers unites the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, which manufactures the UAZ model range, as well as enterprises that produce Sollers brand cars using China's JAC technologies, namely Ulyanovsk-based Sollers Cargo LLC that manufactures Sollers Argo LCV, Yelabuga-based Sollers Alabuga LLC that produces Sollers Atlant LCV, as well as Vladivostok-based Automobile Industrial Technologies LLC that manufactures Sollers ST6 pickups.
The group's assets also include Ulyanovsk-based Sollers Comtrans LLC, formerly a joint venture with Isuzu and yet to be relaunched; the industrial site of Zavolzhsky Engine Plant (ZMZ), which produces manual transmissions; as well as a number of other subsidiaries.
The principal shareholder of PJSC Sollers until summer 2022 was entrepreneur Vadim Shvetsov, who sold a controlling stake to Alter Invest of the group's senior managers.
