MegaFon Shareholders Approve 73.5 Billion Rouble Dividend for Nine Months of 2024

Summary: Shareholders of PJSC MegaFon approved a dividend of 118.55 roubles per share for the nine months of 2024 at an extraordinary general meeting on November 29, 2024, directing a total of 73.5 billion roubles to the payout — 23.5 billion roubles from net profit earned in the nine months and 50 billion roubles from retained earnings of previous years. The register of shareholders entitled to receive the dividend closes on December 9, 2024, according to the company's statement reported by Interfax.

The decision

The extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of PJSC MegaFon approved the nine-month dividend at 118.55 roubles per share. In total, 73.5 billion roubles will be directed to the payment: 23.5 billion roubles come from net profit based on the results of the nine months of 2024, and a further 50 billion roubles from undistributed profit of previous years. The record date for receiving the dividend is December 9, 2024.

The third payout of 2024

The nine-month distribution is the company's third dividend decision of the calendar year. Earlier in 2024 MegaFon had already paid dividends twice: for the results of 2023 in the amount of 13 billion roubles (20.97 roubles per share), and for the first half of the year in the amount of 15 billion roubles (24.2 roubles per share).

2023 results: 13 billion roubles, 20.97 roubles per share.
First half of 2024: 15 billion roubles, 24.2 roubles per share.
Nine months of 2024: 73.5 billion roubles, 118.55 roubles per share, record date December 9, 2024.

Taken together, the three decisions of 2024 put more than 103 billion roubles of distributions into the company's annual record, with the nine-month payout alone exceeding the two earlier rounds combined by a wide margin.

Other agenda items and ownership

Shareholders also approved the execution of major transactions; the substance of the transactions is not disclosed. MegaFon is one of the largest telecom operators in the Russian Federation. The company is 100% owned by structures of USM: 50% held by AF Telecom Holding LLC and another 50% by USM Telecom LLC.

What the payout structure signals

The composition of the nine-month dividend is the most informative part of the decision. Only about a third of the 73.5 billion roubles — 23.5 billion — comes from profit generated in the reporting period, while 50 billion roubles is drawn from retained earnings of previous years. A payout structured this way is not constrained by the current period's earnings: it distributes accumulated resources of prior years alongside current profit, which makes the per-share figure of 118.55 roubles several times larger than either of the two earlier 2024 payments. At 118.55 roubles per share and a total of 73.5 billion roubles, the arithmetic implies a share count on the order of 620 million papers, so the per-share number and the aggregate are two views of one decision rather than independent facts. For a wholly owned company whose shares are held by two USM structures, such a distribution is also a mechanism of moving cash to the parent level of the group, and the use of retained earnings shows that the capacity for such moves was built in earlier profitable years rather than earned in the nine months alone.