(Bloomberg) — Banco Safra SA paid 11 billion reais ($2 billion) in dividends and interest to the owners of its parent company in 2025, ahead of higher taxes that will kick in this year.
Of the total, which was the highest since at least 2016, 60% came from profits from previous years retained in the bank’s equity, according to the lender’s balance sheet. The figure was more than seven times the 2024 payment and more than twice as big as last year’s profit of 4.4 billion reais.
Many companies in Brazil paid record dividends last year to beat the change in taxes. Investors previously paid no income tax on dividends, while interest over capital distributed to shareholders was assessed at 15%. Starting this year, dividends over 50,000 reais are taxed at 10% and interest over capital at 17.5%.
Itau Unibanco Holding SA had profits of 46.9 billion reais last year, and its dividend and interest over capital paid was 48.3 billion reais.
Safra didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Dividends paid by São Paulo-based Banco Safra in recent decades have helped boost the fortunes of a banking and wealth-management clan spanning Brazil, the US and Switzerland. Vicky Safra, 73, heads the family with a fortune of about $27.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Born in Greece to a family that relocated to Brazil in the 1950s, Vicky is the widow of Joseph Safra, one of the heirs to a banking empire started in the mid-19th century in Aleppo, Syria. Joseph’s predecessors started the business funding camel trade caravans during the Ottoman Empire.
After his death in 2020, Vicky and their four children took control of the family’s most prized assets, including Basel, Switzerland-based J. Safra Sarasin, currently with nearly $288 billion in assets under management.
Jacob J. Safra, the eldest son, is the chairman of J. Safra Sarasin, which recently purchased a majority stake in the Danish online trading and investment firm Saxo Bank A/S.
Last year Joseph and Vicky’s only daughter, Esther Safra Dayan, sold a stake in her family’s business to Jacob and younger brother David, who’s based in Brazil. That happened after a years-long legal dispute incited by another sibling, Alberto, over the estate of their father.
In the agreement, Alberto said he would divest his interests in J. Safra Group and pursue his business interests through his own Sao Paulo-based investment firm, ASA.
The family’s real estate portfolio includes the Gherkin skyscraper in London and New York’s 660 Madison Ave.
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