Sberbank will not pay dividends for 2021 despite record profit

This decision was made for the first time since 2000. At the same time, in 2021 Sberbank received a record profit of 1.246 billion rubles.

“The meeting approved the recommendations of the Supervisory Board on non-distribution of Sberbank’s net profit for 2021 and non-payment of dividends on shares. The recommendations are based on the provisions of Sberbank’s dividend policy on taking into account factors influencing capital and the ability to have an adequate margin of safety, as well as on Order of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1252-r dated May 20, 2022, and the Bank of Russia Recommendation dated April 15, 2022”, - the statement published by the press service of Sberbank, says.

According to the dividend policy of the credit institution, shareholders are provided with dividends in the amount of at least 50% of IFRS net profit. At the same time, the controlling shareholder of Sberbank with 50% and one share is the Russian government. According to Kommersant, in 2020 the organization made a profit of 422.4 million rubles, and dividends of 18.7 rubles were paid for each share.

According to TASS, the decision immediately affected the value of the company's shares. Sberbank securities fell by 7%, but then the decline slowed down to almost 4%, after which the share price was 127.56 rubles.

In mid-June, the Bank of Russia recommended that credit institutions refuse to pay dividends to shareholders and bonuses to the board, which is necessary to maintain financial stability in the short and medium term.