Sovcombank shareholders approve dividends of 1.14 rubles per share for 2023

MOSCOW. June 26 (Interfax) - The shareholders of Sovcombank at the annual general meeting voted to pay out dividends of 1.14 rubles per ordinary share for 2023, the bank said.

Sovcombank plans to pay out a total of 23.506 billion rubles from its net profit for 2023.

The dividend record date is July 8, 2024, and the dividends could be paid by July 22 this year.

Sovcombank previously said that it does not plan to abandon its dividend policy despite the rapid growth, and the lending organization intends to maintain payouts at 25%-30% of net profit.

The bank swung to net profit of 95 billion rubles to International Financial Reporting Standards in 2023 from a net loss of 14.3 billion rubles in 2022. Consequently, dividends could possibly total 25% of net profit for 2023 when excluding interim payments already rendered for the year, and dividends could total 30% of net profit when accounting for interim payments already rendered for the year.

Sovcombank shareholders voted in November 2023 to pay out 5 billion rubles in dividends from retained earnings from past years.

The bank's principal shareholder is IJSC Sovco Capital Partners with an 85% stake, a number of sovereign wealth funds hold 10%, and 5% is in free float, Sovcombank managing director Andrei Osnos said previously.

Sovcombank was Russia's eighth largest bank by assets, with 3.406 trillion rubles, at the end of the first quarter of 2024, according to the Interfax-100 ranking prepared by the Interfax Center for Economic Analysis.