INTERVIEW: FESCO says unreasonable to restart dividend payments

MOSCOW, Aug 3 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Far-Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) should reinvest profit, not restart dividend payments, CEO Andrei Severilov told PRIME in an interview on Thursday.

“As CEO, I personally think that it would be unreasonable to distribute any dividends and that we need to allocate the entire net profit to investment. The board of directors recommends that as well. We have room for growth,” he said.

“This issue is not on the agenda. The current times call for purchases of fixed assets. We need to continue expanding our assets so that we continue our extensive growth and development.”

He also said that FESCO was looking into acquisition of port infrastructure assets in Egypt and that the company may attract a local partner to do so.

The company will launch a direct shipping service from Novorossiysk to Egypt in November, and is also preparing to open its office in the country.

“In Egypt, we are looking at (the acquisition of) one of the ventures in the sphere of port infrastructure, and we will most likely need an Egyptian partner to do it,” Severilov said.

It is unclear whether the company will invest money in port infrastructure, and is too early to disclose any details of the possible deal, he said.

Also, FESCO is ready to transport the Lada cars of Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVAZ to Africa.

“Our colleagues from AvtoVAZ will obviously have to find their market and their clients, but I am sure that they will succeed in that. On our side, we are ready to help them if there is a firm order for transportation. We are ready to acquire any ships for that and car carriers for transportation,” he said.

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