PRESS: Russia Rosneftegaz to pay 25% of ‘15RAS net profit in divs

MOSCOW, Apr 20 (PRIME) -- Russian state holding Rosneftegaz will be excluded from a recently adopted ruling that state-run companies must pay 50% of net profit for 2015 in dividends, and will pay 25% of the net profit under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), business daily Kommersant reported Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a ruling that all state-run companies must pay 50% of their highest profit – under RAS or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) – in dividends for 2015. But a representative for the ministry said that a company may pay less than 50% of net profit if there is a separate government ruling, which was signed on April 5.

Rosneftegaz requested a presidential approval to pay only 25% of the RAS net profit for the year in dividends, or only 18 billion rubles, according to a letter of the Federal State Property Management Agency’s department head Vitaly Sergeichuk to Rosneftegaz Acting General Director Larisa Kalanda cited by Kommersant.

All other state-controlled companies are ready to pay the requested amount of dividends. But Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy Systems (FGC UES) has submitted its suggestion on dividends to the agency and is waiting for a response, a representative for the company told Kommersant.

(65.6474 rubles – U.S. $1)

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