| The share of dividends in the bank's net profit can be increased Sberbank of Russia will announce its 2002 International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS) results this week. According to Troika Dialog estimates, “despite the growth of assets by 33% (by 2001 - Ed. ), the bank’s net profit will not change due to a decrease in interest margins and an increase in operating expenses.” Meanwhile, on Friday, after the annual meeting of Sberbank shareholders, Bank of Russia Chairman Sergei Ignatiev, who heads its supervisory board, said that majority shareholders could meet minority shareholders halfway and increase the share of dividends in the bank’s net profit.
The annual meeting of Sberbank shareholders (according to the bank, 90.32% of the voting shares took part in it), despite the standard agenda and the never announced IAS results, contained at least one intrigue - the election of independent directors to the supervisory board . Let us recall that one of them, Vadim Kleiner, director of corporate research at the Hermitage Capital Management fund, lost two lawsuits to Sber in Moscow arbitration on charges of unfounded criticism of management in June. And at the end of last year, the supervisory board officially declared unacceptable the “public assessment of Sberbank’s activities”, which was voiced by Mr. Kleiner at the London conference “Russian Banking Sector”.
It is interesting that on the day of the meeting of Sberbank shareholders, Mr. Kleiner lost his participation in the board of directors of Gazprom, where he also represented minority shareholders. However, according to the results of voting in Sberbank, both Kleiner and another independent director, co-owner of the OFG company Boris Fedorov, retained their seats on the board. “Despite significant opposition from the company (Sberbank. - Ed. ), Vadim Kleiner was re-elected for a third term as an independent director of the bank, gaining 7.6% of shareholder votes,” Hermitage said in a press release. In addition, the updated council (see sidebar) for the first time included the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank Oleg Vyugin, the new chief auditor of the Central Bank Valery Tkachenko, the head of the Moscow State Technical University of the Central Bank Konstantin Shor and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Arkady Dvorkovich.
It is no secret that the minority shareholders' hopes for strengthening the role of the board of directors in the strategic management of the bank and a constructive dialogue with management are connected with the appearance of Mr. Vyugin on the board. Including on issues of dividend policy (at the end of 2002, the meeting of shareholders, as expected, approved dividends in the amount of 7% of the bank's net profit - 218% of the par value of ordinary shares and 232% of preferred shares). Both Vadim Kleiner and Boris Fedorov have repeatedly stated that they would like to see dividends at the level of 20-25% of net profit, which was not yet included in the plans of the Central Bank as the main shareholder of Sber (controls 63.3% of shares).
However, already on Friday, the head of the Central Bank and the Supervisory Board of Sberbank, Sergei Ignatiev, partially reassured minority shareholders. “I do not exclude the possibility that this figure (the percentage of net profit allocated for dividends. - Ed. ) will be increased, but not much,” he said, summing up the meeting. Based on the fact that in 2002, minority shareholders achieved an increase in the share of dividends by 1%, we can assume that the new increase will indeed be insignificant. However, the total amount of dividends may increase. Sber President Andrey Kazmin said on Friday that according to the results of the first half of the year, net profit under RAS could amount to 20 billion rubles. “Last year, profit in the first half of the year amounted to 17 billion rubles. - reminds leading analyst of BrokerCreditService Maxim Shein. -- The trend of rapid growth in bank profits continues. This is a consequence of the improving economic situation in Russia and the general revival in the financial sector.”
Read about Sberbank's financial results according to IAS and RAS in one of the upcoming issues.
According to the press service of Sberbank, the meeting of shareholders approved the bank’s annual report for 2002, the balance sheet as of January 1, 2003 in the amount of 2.659 trillion rubles, as well as changes to the bank’s charter (see Vremya Novostey of May 27). PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit was appointed as Sberbank's auditor for 2003. Yuri VERETENNIKOV |
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