PRESS: Russia’s Transneft may pay 100% RAS profit in 2015 divs

MOSCOW, May 11 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Economic Development Ministry has sent a draft directive to the government suggesting that oil pipeline monopoly Transneft pay 100% of its net profit under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) in 2015 dividends, business daily Vedomosti reported Wednesday citing a representative of the ministry.

The draft directive has been already agreed on with the Federal State Property Management Agency and the Energy Ministry, the daily said.

If the government agrees with the suggestion, Transneft will save almost 60 billion rubles, as its RAS net profit of 12.8 billion rubles is significantly lower than its net profit of 143.4 billion rubles under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Vedomosti said.

According to the ruling recently signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a state company must take the highest figure of its net profit – under RAS or under IFRS – and allocate no less than 50% of the net profit for dividends.

(66.3277 rubles – U.S. $1)

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