VTB Bank will pay dividends for the first time in four years
VTB shares quotes (MOOEX: Vtbr) Updated the annual maximum on the decision of the bank’s hunger council to pay dividends for the first time in four years. At the same time, earlier the bank management of the bank stated that it would not offer dividends due to various negative factors-a high key rate, the introduction of an anticyclical allowance, and tightening the tax regime. However, taking into account the slowdown in lending, as well as on promises to replenish the capital, the regulator agreed to large -scale payments of the bank. At the same time, market participants expect increased volatility of VTB shares, including against the background of the expected additional ministry.
The decision of the VTB Supervisory Board to pay the first dividends in four years led to the rapid growth of shares on the Moscow Exchange. In half an hour they exceeded 109 rubles, the maximum value from May 2024. The exchange was even forced to introduce discrete auctions due to the rapid price increase. Even taking into account the correction in the afternoon, the quotes of shares were closed according to the results of the main session at the mark of 100 rubles, which is 14% higher than the closure of the previous bidding.
At the same time, the volume of bidding by 20:00 exceeded 58 billion rubles, amounting to almost 40% of the volume of trading shares from the Moscow Exchange index. And the IMOEX index itself added almost 1%, fixing above the level of 3000 points. At the same time, the quotes of Sberbank shares are located near the values of November 2021, while the cost of VTB shares is more than two times lower than the values of that period.
At the meeting on April 28, the VTB supervision council for the first time since 2021 recommended paying dividends in the amount of 25.58 rubles. for one ordinary action. Taking into account payments for privileged shares (belong to the state, do not apply on the market) the volume of 274.8 billion rubles. (50% of net profit in IFRS for 2024).
At the same time, from the end of last year, top managers publicly stated that shareholders may not wait for payments even taking into account record profit. So, in December 2024, the head of VTB Andrei Kostin in an interview with Reuters said: “We wanted to pay dividends at the end of 2024, but due to an anticyclical allowance, maybe they will not be.” Anticyclical allowance is an additional requirement for the standards of sufficiency of bank capital during the active growth of corporate lending.
At the end of February 2025, the first deputy chairman of VTB Dmitry Pyanov said: “Management will offer not to pay dividends according to the results of 2024 due to an unprecedented amount of simultaneously manifesting negative factors affecting our ability to increase the sufficiency of capital.” Among the negative factors, he called a high key rate, the introduction of an anticyclical allowance, tightening the tax regime and the approach to blocked assets.
The VTB’s management position has changed the new assessment of the dynamics of the development of the banking market, ”said Dmitry Pyanov following the results of the Nabso Soviet meeting.
He explained that the lending market is growing weaker than the forecast, which means that the bank needs less capital. The top manager noted that consultations were held with the Central Bank, which approved payments subject to the replenishment of VTB of drop-down capital.
At the same time, Dmitry Pyanov noted that it may be necessary to attract capital « in return for the lost one that will be associated with the payment of dividends. » Moreover, the sufficiency of capital remains one of the main problems of the group. As stated by Mr. Pyanov, the payment of dividends will lead to a decrease in the sufficiency of capital N20.0 by 1.1 percentage points. According to the VTB reporting on IFRS for the first quarter, N20.0 was already 9.9%, while the minimum value of the standard from July 1 increases to 9.25%. Therefore, the bank does not exclude the implementation of the additional shares.
Experts note that the lack of dividends was considered one of the main deficiencies in VTB shares in the eyes of investors.
“Therefore, the“ dividend surprise ”, and even so large, naturally, led to such a sharp market reaction,” says the analyst of Finam Igor Dodonov. Market participants expect that the price of a bank’s shares can continue to grow in the coming days, but their volatility will still remain high. Their cost can also be affected by the parameters of the likely additional ministry, Mr. Dodonov notes. At the same time, the BCS Investment Analyst Andrei Sharov believes that the bank can replenish capital and by the sale of non -core assets, but « the speed and efficiency of these processes remain indefinite. »
