CEO: Russia’s PhosAgro may pay dividends every three months 2016

MOSCOW, May 11 (PRIME) -- Management of Russian fertilizer producer PhosAgro will recommend paying quarterly dividends in 2016, if the company generates enough cash to the board of directors, CEO Andrei Guryev told reporters on Wednesday.

PhosAgro has a strong financial performance, he said. “We are leaders here. Firstly, we are the most profitable company in the industry by the EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin, as well as by the net profit margin. We started to pay quarterly dividends (in 2015),” Guryev said.

“I believe that we will also do so in future. Of course, it depends on company’s financial performance, particularly the cash flow. With enough cash flow, management will recommend the board of directors pay quarterly dividends.”

“The dividend policy is to pay up to 50% of a net profit, and we are trying to reach this figure,” the CEO said.

In April 2015 the company changed its dividend policy to paying 30–50% of its net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in dividends instead of 20–40%.

PhosAgro paid 6.216 billion rubles in interim dividends in July 2015 and 7.382 billion rubles in October out of undistributed profits.

In January, the shareholders approved payment of 8.159 billion rubles in interim dividends.

In March, the board of directors of the fertilizer producer recommended the shareholders pay 7.382 billion rubles in 2015 dividends.

The company paid a total of 7.78 billion rubles, including annual and interim dividends, for 2014.

PhosAgro earned a 36.4 billion ruble IFRS net profit for 2015 against a 13.4 billion ruble net loss in 2014.

PhosAgro’s main beneficiaries are the family of Guryev with a 50.28% total stake, Vladimir Litvinenko with 14.5% and Igor Antoshin who owns 14.58%.

(66.3277 rubles – U.S. $1)

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