MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia’s largest lender Sberbank said on Tuesday that its board recommended paying a record high 786.9 billion roubles ($9.68 billion) in dividends.
The dividend will amount to 34.84 roubles ($0.4285) per share for 2024. Russian banks’ profits increased last year due to accelerated lending, which has since declined in response to the central bank raising its key interest rate.
“This is another record in both the history of Sber and the Russian market,” Sberbank’s CEO German Gref said in a statement.
“We will allocate half of this amount to the state, and the other half to our two million retail investors, for whom Sber’s dividends remain an important source of income year after year,” Gref said.
The state holds 50% plus one share in the lender, and the dividend will contribute to budget revenues at a time when oil prices are falling and economic growth is slowing.
Sberbank’s dividend payout at 50% of the bank’s net profit aligns with the Finance Ministry’s expectations. Sberbank’s net profit increased by 4.5% in 2024 to 1.58 trillion roubles.
($1 = 81.3000 roubles)
(Reporting by Elena FabrichnayaWriting by Gleb BryanskiEditing by David Goodman and Susan Fenton)
