Raspadskaya shares lose 15% as board recommends no 2017 divs

MOSCOW, Mar 22 (PRIME) -- The shares of Russian coal producer Raspadskaya dropped around 15% on the Moscow Exchange after the company’s board of directors recommended paying no dividends for 2017, when the company’s net profit increased by 70% to U.S. $319 million, according to the exchange’s data seen by PRIME on Thursday.

The shareholders will consider the board’s recommendation at an annual general meeting on May 17. The register for the meeting will close on April 22.

After a serious accident at a mine in 2010, Raspadskaya paid dividends only for January–June of 2011 of 5 rubles per share, or a total of 3.9 billion rubles. In 2016, the company’s shareholders decided to spend 6.75 billion rubles of the net profit to cover losses of previous years, and to not distribute the remaining 6.2 billion rubles.

Raspadskaya is part of U.K.-based steel and mining giant Evraz, which operates mainly in Russia.

(57.4954 rubles – U.S. $1)

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