"This demonstrates that Sberbank is ranked second after Gazprom for Russian companies," the savings bank said.
Sberbank shareholders, the Central Bank owns over 60% of shares, reelected Central Bank Chairman Sergei Ignatyev as head of the supervisory board.
At their annual meeting Friday, the shareholders also approved a new line up for the supervisory board, comprising 11 government representatives, three Sberbank managers, and three minority shareholders.
A decision was taken to earmark 10% of the bank's net profit in 2006 to pay dividends to shareholders. Sberbank's net profit in 2006 calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards increased 25.8% to 82.8 billion rubles ($3.2 billion).
Consequently, dividends from the common stock grew 44.9% comparing to those in 2005, which represented 8.5% of its net profit.
Sberbank will pay 385.5 rubles ($15) per common share and 9.3 rubles ($0.36) per privileged one.
The bank's charter capital of 67.8 billion rubles ($2.6 billion) is divided into some 21.6 million common shares worth 3,000 rubles and 50 million privileged shares worth 60 rubles.
