Gref: Supervisory Board of Sberbank recommended record dividends of 25 rubles per share

The head of Sberbank German Gref said that the bank’s supervisory board recommended shareholders to pay record dividends in the amount of 565 billion rubles. The date of fixing the persons entitled to receive dividends is May 11. Sberbank shares are already growing by more than 7%.

“This is 25 rubles per share and a yield of about 15% per annum based on the price of Sberbank shares in recent days. At the same time, I note that over the past 5 months, Sberbank shares have added more than 70% in price. Those investors who believed in us during the most difficult period, from spring to autumn 2022, will receive the highest possible return on their investments,” the head of the bank said.

Mr. Gref stressed that about 1.5 million Russians are now private investors in Sberbank. And the bank would like to thank its investors with such dividends for their trust and support.

“The capital adequacy of Sberbank after the payment of dividends will be higher than the restrictions of the Central Bank and the limits set by the Supervisory Board. We have shown our forecasts for 2023, in accordance with them we will continue to develop due to the capitalization of net profit,” he said.

The head of Sberbank noted that in the period from January to February, the credit institution showed good results and earned 225 billion rubles. net profit. Mr. Gref called the increasing growth in mortgages since the beginning of 2023 one of the drivers of profit growth.

“The number of mortgage applications submitted in February exceeded January by 14%, and compared to the same period in 2022, the growth was 18%. So in January-February, about 700 thousand applications were submitted in the amount of 2.2 trillion rubles. In March, we observe the continuation of this trend, since in the first half of March more than 150,000 applications have already been submitted in the amount of 560 billion rubles,” he added.

Sberbank managed to achieve high results last year due to the coordinated actions of the Russian government, the Bank of Russia and its own team, Mr. Gref believes. On March 7, at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the head of Sberbank told about a “very difficult period”, and called the credit institution “the most attacked entity in the country.” However, he noted that Sberbank managed to end “its period of unprofitability.”

At the end of 2022, Sberbank received a record profit of 1 trillion 246 billion rubles. However, then the shareholders for the first time since 2000 decided not pay dividends for 2021. In November German Gref saidthat Sberbank was able to overcome the crisis period and sees no obstacles to paying dividends in 2023.

Milena Kostereva