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Dividend policy

End of August 2019, the Board of Directors of Almancora Société de gestion, statutory director of KBC Ancora, has decided to make a limited adjustment to the dividend policy. This adjustment means that, barring exceptional circumstances, 90% of the distributable recurring result for the financial year (i.e. after adjustment for any exceptional results and after the compulsory formation of the legal reserve) will be paid out as (interim) dividend.
Compared to the previous dividend policy, this means a reduction of 10%. 

As KBC Ancora is holding more cash within the business as a result, this will enable the outstanding financial liabilities to be reduced more quickly. That makes KBC Ancora’s balance sheet more resilient against shocks and will in principle lead to an accelerated reduction in the interest charges payable.

It should be noted, however, that:

  • in the event that KBC Ancora does not receive a dividend from its participating interest in KBC Group in any given year, KBC Ancora will itself not pay a dividend in that year. If KBC Ancora receives KBC Group dividend again in a subsequent financial year, its result carried forward from previous years will be taken into account when determining the profit available for distribution.
  • the setting aside of the legal reserve does not constitute an economic cost for KBC Ancora shareholders. The share of profits that cannot be distributed due to the obligatory setting aside of a legal reserve remains part of KBC Ancora’s capital, which will, in time, be reflected in the price of KBC Ancora shares (indirect flow-through). 
  • KBC Ancora’s operating expenses, expressed in terms of the market value of its assets, are extremely low and are significantly lower, for example, than the management fees charged by BEVEK or SICAV investment funds.

Application of the dividend policy

The adjusted dividend policy would in principle have been applied for the first time to the interim dividend which (barring exceptional circumstances) would have been made payable at the beginning of June 2020. However, in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic the Board of Directors of Almancora Société de gestion, statutory director of KBC Ancora, decided not to distribute an interim dividend, nor to propose a final dividend in respect of the financial year 2019/2020. KBC Ancora applied the funds which were retained within the company as a result of this decision to the loans totalling EUR 100 million which matured in May 2022. 
In financial year 2020/2021, the (slightly adjusted) dividend policy announced in August 2019 was applied for the first time.

The historical evolution of the KBC Ancora dividend.