TCS Holding plans to pay out up to 30% of net profit under new dividend policy

MOSCOW. Aug 20 (Interfax) - TCS Holding's new dividend policy envisages paying out up to 30% of net profit for the year, and the group will strive to declare dividends quarterly, the holding said.

When recommending the amount of dividends, the board of directors will account for the requirements of the holding and its subsidiaries regarding capital for business development, including plans for mergers and acquisitions, substantial changes in the macroeconomic situation on the market, and other changes that have or could potentially have a substantial effect on operating activities.

The group also has the right to decide to pay dividends from retained earnings from previous years.

TCS Holding had planned to present the new dividend policy at the end of 2024. TBank CEO Stanislav Bliznyuk said earlier that the holding would retain the main principles of profit distribution in the new document.

Bliznyuk said on a conference call on Tuesday that the board would discuss paying quarterly dividends before the end of 2024.

"We expect the board will discuss paying first dividends for past quarters before the end of this year," he said.

The group is also considering paying dividends for several quarters.

"We want to give investors a path to see our shares as being more attractive in terms of dividend yield. So it is quite possible that we will pay for more than one quarter based on the results of three quarters. I will not tell you the exact amount yet," said TBank CFO Ilya Pisemsky.

IPJSC TCS Holding was established as part of re-registering TCS Group from Cyprus to Russia. TCS Group's dividend policy envisaged distributing up to 30% of quarterly profit to International Financial Reporting Standards.

TCS Group last declared dividends in March 2021 totaling $0.24 per share for Q4 2020, and the group announced a temporary suspension of dividend payments.

Vladimir Potanin's Interros Group is TCS Group's principal shareholder with a 35% stake, which it purchased from the group's founder, Oleg Tinkov, in April 2022. Tinkov was subsequently recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation.