PRESS: Govt wants Sberbank to pay 150 bln rbl in divs for 2017

MOSCOW, Jun 30 (PRIME) -- The government plans to receive 150 billion rubles of dividends from Russia’s top bank Sberbank for 2017, and also 165 billion rubles in 2019 and 181.5 billion rubles in 2020, Vedomosti business daily reported on Friday citing a 2018–2020 budget draft.

For 2016, Sberbank paid 25% of the net profit calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in dividends, or 135.5 billion rubles, of which the central bank received 67.75 billion rubles as it owns 50% plus one share in Sberbank.

Sberbank’s dividends policy does not specifically note the level of dividends it has to pay, but representatives of the bank repeatedly said it wanted to pay 20% of net profit in dividends, Vedomosti reported.

A source close to Sberbank told the daily that the bank paid 25% of the net profit in dividends for 2016 as it received a record net profit in the year and the supervisory board gave in to requests of the shareholders. In 2017, the bank expects to receive an even higher net profit, but it would not be that high to result in a twofold increase in dividends, so it looks like the Finance Ministry expects the bank to pay 50% of the net profit in dividends, the source said.

The management of the bank will be concerned if the ministry wants it to pay 50% of the net profit in dividends, as the bank plans to invest in digital technologies and it needs capital to comply with the Basel II regulations, Vedomosti reported.

Previously, Sberbank CEO German Gref said that the payment of even 30% of the net profit in dividends will bear risks for the bank as it has to form a large amount of reserves in 2017. Several officials told the business daily that Gref earlier had to bargain hard so that the dividends for 2016 do not exceed 25% of the net profit.

(59.0855 rubles – U.S. $1)

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