Jusan Group owners want to receive $362 million in dividends

First Heartland Securities (FHS), the majority shareholder in Jusan Bank, is going to recommend its subsidiary make dividend payouts for 2021 at $2.21 per share. This decision was made during the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the FHS shareholders on October 6.

Now, Jusan Bank is expected to hold its EGM on October 24. The bank is going to discuss the dividend payout issue. According to FHS, the bank is going to use its net profit obtained during the last few years to make dividend payouts. The company highlighted that payouts to Galimzhan Yessenov, a minority shareholder of the bank, will be made under the shareholder agreement dated November 2020.

Given that Jusan Bank is going to pay $2.21 per share, the total amount of dividend payout may reach $362 million. FHS is going to receive $285.1 million in dividend payouts, while the share of Mr. Yessenov is assessed at about $72.8 million. However, since the agreement between Jusan Bank and Yessenov has never been disclosed, the minority shareholder might be limited from receiving dividend payouts.

As of July 1, there were 164 million common shares of Jusan Bank with only two shareholders: First Heartland Securities (78.7%) and Galimzhan Yessenov (20.1%). The businessman was the only owner of the former ATFBank and he dropped his stock in exchange for shares of Jusan Bank when the two banks were merged last year.

The final beneficiary of FHS is NU Generation Foundation, a non-commercial organization established to finance the Nazarbayev University and Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. As of January 2021, the vast majority of FHS shares (67.5%) belonged to Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation.

Apart from dividend payouts by Jusan Bank, FHS shareholders have also agreed to make its dividend payments as well. These payouts of about $30.8 million are expected on October 7. «The dividend payout to a non-resident shareholder must be made in USD under the current exchange rate,» the FHS shareholders said in a statement.

Before ATFBank and Tsesna Bank were merged with Jusan Bank, they were large receivers of the government’s bailout, money they have never returned. In June, Nurdaulet Aidossov, CEO of Jusan Bank said that the bank is going to pay back part of those public funds in stages.

On June 27, 2022, the annual shareholders meeting decided not to make dividend payouts for 2021.