VTB most likely will not pay dividends for 2023 – Kommersant

The head of VTB Andrey Kostin said that the bank is likely to refuse to pay dividends this year. According to him, such a decision is planned to be made, despite the projected record profit of the financial institution.

“For dividends for 2023, I think that there will most likely be no payments,” Mr. Kostin said in an interview. RBC. He added that VTB plans to resume payments to shareholders in the future, but he did not disclose the exact timing of the return to dividend payments.

August 31 reportedthat the VTB Group maintains its net profit forecast for 2023 at around RUB 400 billion. According to Mr. Kostin, there is a high probability that VTB will exceed this indicator and the bank’s profit for the year will turn out to be a “record”.

At the end of 2022, the VTB Group received losses in the amount of 756.8 billion rubles against the background of being hit by Western sanctions. under RAS (613 billion rubles under IFRS). Because of this, the bank’s shareholders decided not pay dividends. Nevertheless, Mr. Kostin argues that thanks to the sanctions, the bank “has developed a certain immunity and increased its sovereignty.” The head of VTB also believes that Western sanctions against the Russian banking sector have destroyed the global trading system and led to inflation.

The last time VTB paid dividends to shareholders based on the results of 2020 was 0.0014 rubles. per share. In total, 18.146 billion rubles were allocated for the payment of dividends, which amounted to 48% of the bank’s annual net profit according to RAS.

Alexander Kislov