Safra Pays $2 Billion Dividend to Its Owners Ahead of Tax Hike
(Bloomberg) — Banco Safra SA paid 11 billion reais ($2 billion) in dividends and interest to its parent company’s owners in 2025 ahead of higher taxes that will start this year.
According to the lender’s balance sheet, 60% of the total, the highest since at least 2016, came from profits from previous years held in the bank’s equity capital. This figure was more than seven times the 2024 payout and more than double last year’s profit of 4.4 billion reais.
Many companies in Brazil paid record dividends last year to offset the change in taxes. While investors previously did not pay income tax on dividends, the interest rate on the capital distributed to shareholders was calculated as 15%. Starting from this year, dividends exceeding 50,000 reais will be taxed at 10%, and interest on capital will be taxed at 17.5%.
Itau Unibanco Holding SA made a profit of 46.9 billion reais last year, and its dividends and interest on paid-in capital amounted to 48.3 billion reais.
Safra did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Dividends paid by São Paulo-based Banco Safra in recent years have helped boost the fortunes of a banking and asset management clan that spans Brazil, the United States and Switzerland. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, 73-year-old Vicky Safra is the head of the family with a fortune of approximately $27.3 billion.
Born in Greece to parents who moved to Brazil in the 1950s, Vicky is the widow of Joseph Safra, one of the heirs of a banking empire founded in Aleppo, Syria, in the mid-19th century. Joseph’s predecessors started by financing camel trading caravans during the Ottoman Empire.
Vicky and her four children gained control of the family’s most valuable assets following his death in 2020; these include Basel, Switzerland-based J. Safra Sarasin, which currently has approximately $288 billion in assets under management.
Eldest son Jacob J. Safra is chairman of J. Safra Sarasin, which recently acquired a majority stake in Danish online trading and investment company Saxo Bank A/S.
Last year, Joseph and Vicky’s only daughter, Esther Safra Dayan, sold a stake in her family’s company to Jacob and his younger brother David, who live in Brazil. This followed a years-long legal dispute instigated by another brother, Alberto, over their father’s inheritance.
In the deal, Alberto said he would divest his shares in J. Safra Group and pursue his business interests through his own Sao Paulo-based investment company, ASA.
The family’s real estate portfolio includes the Gherkin skyscraper in London and 660 Madison Ave in New York.
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