At a board meeting today, the Board decided to distribute a dividend based on the profit for the 2019 financial year of NOK 6,125 million. This corresponds to NOK 12.25 per share, of which NOK 7.25 is a regular dividend and NOK 5.00 is a special dividend. The regular dividend corresponds to a pay-out ratio of 72 per cent for the Group, adjusted for the gain from the sale of Gjensidige Bank. The special dividend is related to proceeds from the bank sale. The Board has utilised its authorisation to determine distribution of dividend, granted by the Annual General Meeting on 25 May 2020.
Over NOK 2 billion of the dividend is expected to be passed on to Gjensidige's almost 1 million general insurance customers in Norway as customer dividend, via Gjensidige's largest shareholder Gjensidigestiftelsen, pending board approval in Gjensidigestiftelsen.
The withdrawal of the dividend proposal earlier this year was based on regulatory stance following the pandemic. The Board's decision today to pay out the dividend is based on clarification from the Norwegian Ministry of Finance in a press release on 9 September, the Board's view of reduced economic uncertainty in general and Gjensidige's very strong capitalisation. The Group's solvency margin as at 30 June 2020, assuming the declared dividend and based on the approved Partial Internal Model, was 221 per cent. The Group solvency ratio target is 150-200 per cent.
Shareholders registered on 21 September 2020 will be entitled to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is 22 September 2020, and the record date is 23 September 2020. The dividend will be distributed on 30 September 2020.
This release contains alternative performance measures (APMs). APMs are described at www.gjensidige.no/reporting in a document named APMs Gjensidige Forsikring Group Q2 2020.
This information is subject to disclosure under the Norwegian Securities Act section 5-12.
Contact persons, Gjensidige Forsikring ASA:
Head of Investor Relations Mitra Hagen Negård, Tel: +47 957 93 631
Head of Communication Øystein Thoresen, Tel: +47 952 33 382