At the price before the announcement, this would amount to a DY of 2.1%. If approved, the ex-date would be set for 13 July 2022.

Podravka Supervisory Board has met and approved the financial results for the year 2021. They have also accepted a proposal for the distribution of profit for the year made by the Management Board. At the Group level, this would mean that HRK 91.3m would be paid out as dividends, representing a pay-out ratio of 28.7%, and a gross dividend of HRK 13 per share. Compared to last year Podravka increased the dividend amount by 44% YoY. This is HRK 4 per share more than it was paid last year when the gross dividend was HRK 9 per share. At the share price before the announcement, this would amount to a dividend yield of 2.1%.

As a reminder, in challenging 2021 Podravka Group achieved strong results with sales revenues in the amount of HRK 4.6bn (+2.8% YoY) and a net profit of HRK 309m (+24.2%YoY).

The ex-date for the payment is set for 13 July 2022, the record date is set for 14 July 2022, and the payment date is set for 12 August 2022. The decision on the distribution of profit is subject to approval by the General Assembly of the company. The meeting of the General Assembly will be held on 14 June 2022.

Dividend per Share (HRK) and Dividend Yield (%) (2016 – 2022)

In March 2022, SBITOP increased by 10.25%, ending the month at 1,206.03 points.

The Ljubljana Stock Exchange has published the latest trading statistics for March 2022. In it, we can see that the total equity turnover (with block trades included) amounted to EUR 72.4m. This would mean that the average daily turnover during the month amounted to EUR 3.15m, an increase of 21.5% YoY.

Meanwhile, the total value that was traded (with block trades excluded) amounted to EUR 68.5m. Of that amount, 48.1% (or EUR 32.9m) was made by Krka, followed by NLB with a turnover of EUR 17.6m (or 25.7%), Petrol, who had a turnover of EUR 6.18m (or 9% of the total), and Triglav, with a turnover of EUR 3.88m (or 5.66% of the total). Combined, these 4 companies accounted for 88.5% of the total equity turnover during the month.

Looking over the performance of the Slovenian-blue chips during the month, all 10 of them experienced a positive return. It should be noted that during the month, Salus and Unior started trading as part of the SBITOP index, as of March 21 when Unior and Salus joined the SBITOP and SBITOP TR as part of a bi-annual review of the composition of the indices. The weight of Unior in the SBITOP will be 0.42%, while the weight of Salus was set at 4.23%. Looking at the companies themselves, Krka had the largest relative increase, growing by 15.7% during the month, and recovering much of the value that was lost due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Following them, we have Triglav, with an increase of 15.4%, Cinkarna Celje with 13.9%, and Petrol, with 10.6%. On the flip side, Unior grew by 1.96%, NLB grew by 2.6%, and Luka Koper grew by 3.4%.

Performance of SBITOP constituents in March 2022 (%)

Considering the amount of uncertainty and volatility after the Russian invasion, as can be seen, most of the stocks recorded at least some of the value that was lost. This recovery is also evident if we look at the total equity market capitalization, which grew by 9.8% and amounted to 8.8bn at the end of the month. In total, SBITOP experienced a positive increase during the month, growing by 10.25% and ending the month at 1,206.03 points.

In February 2022, the total loans of financial institutions in Croatia amounted to HRK 281.8bn, representing an increase of 2.45% YoY, 0.5% MoM.

The Croatian National Bank (HNB) has published a monthly report on the changes experienced by the Croatian financial institutions. In the report, we can see that by the end of February 2022, the total loans to all financial institutions amounted to HRK 281.8bn, representing an increase of 2.5% YoY and 0.5% MoM.

The largest segment, represented by the household loans, experienced an increase of 3.8% YoY (or HRK 5.1bn), 0.3% MoM (or HRK 417.8m). This continues the positive growth trend that was experienced since the beginning of 2022. At the same time, corporate loans recorded an increase of 1% YoY, 2.2% MoM.

Corporate and Household Loans Growth Rate (YoY, %)

In total, loans issued to households amounted to HRK 142bn. The increase was driven by housing loans, which grew by 7.7% YoY (or HRK 4.87bn), and 0.5% MoM (or HRK 323.1m). In February, these loans held the largest share of the household loans, at 48.1%, a slight increase of 0.1 p.p. MoM and 1.7 p.p. YoY. Meanwhile, the 2nd largest category of household loans, the consumer loans ( at 37.6%) increased by HRK 1.31bn (or 2.5%) YoY, and HRK 136.3m (or 0.3% MoM).

At the same time, the household loans growth was reduced by the lower result of credit card loans, which decreased by -22.7% YoY (or HRK -793.7m), and -1.3% (or HRK -36.6m). Meanwhile, other loans (the 3rd largest category of household loans) and overdrafts on transaction accounts (the 4th largest category) decreased by -2.4% (or HRK -215m) and -1.6% (or HRK -101.9m) YoY, respectively. Together, these four categories make up 96.3% of all household loans.

Loans to Households (HRKm)