Trust Bank not ruling out sale of part of preferred shares of RussNeft in 2023 - head of bank

MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax) - Trust Bank continues to work on the sale of a package of preferred shares of PJSC RussNeft , and it does not rule out that a part of it may be sold in 2023, Alexander Sokolov, president and chairman of the bank's executive board, told reporters.

"We will continue to work on the sale, and we do not want to discount it. The asset is super profitable. Dividends are in foreign currency, and dividends are paid. We receive the dividends, but the task is still to exit. I am sure that we will not completely exit the asset this year, though we could be able to sell some part, because the yield is in U.S. dollars, which cannot be found on the market right now, and it is very high," Sokolov said.

Sokolov stressed that the pressure exerted on the Russian oil industry causes a number of difficulties with the sale of RussNeft's securities, since their profitability depends directly on oil revenues.

RussNeft's preferred shares are currently owned by Trust Bank (16.52%) and VTB (8.48%). In addition, as of December 31, 2022, Trust owns 3.61% of the oil company's ordinary shares.

RussNeft currently pays dividends only on preferred shares. In September last year, the company's shareholders at the annual general meeting approved the payment of dividends on preferred shares for 2021 at $0.81606 per share. Overall, $80 million [around 4.6 billion rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank at the time of payment] were allocated to pay dividends on preferred shares last year.