Sberbank raises 2011 dividend by 127%

The shareholders of Russian top lender Sberbank voted to pay dividends for 2011 worth of total 47.5 billion rubles ($1.408 billion), a 127.3 percent increase on the previous year, the bank said in a statement on Friday. The bank will pay dividends for last year at 2.08 rubles per ordinary share compared with 0.92 rubles in 2010 and 2.59 rubles per preferred share, up from 1.15 rubles in 2010. The yield for ordinary shares will amount to 2.05 percent, while the yield for preferred shares will be 3.36 percent. Sberbank's 2011 dividend payment volume equals to 15 percent of its $10.9 billion net profit to IFRS for last year. The bank plans to raise the payment to 20 percent of net profit in 2013. The shareholders also elected a new supervisory board during the annual meeting, cutting the number of state representatives from eight members to six. The new board includes no members of the Russian government for the first time in many years.