Report: Gazprom wants exemption from government dividend ruling

MOSCOW, May 4 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom has asked the government to exempt it from paying half of the net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in dividends for 2015, Bloomberg reported Wednesday quoting sources familiar with the matter.

Previously, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a ruling that all state-run companies must pay 50% of their highest profit – under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) or IFRS – in dividends for 2015.

But the source told Bloomberg that Gazprom asked the government to allow it to pay 50% of the net profit under RAS in dividends for 2015. The company may need money to buy back 2.7% of the shares it owned by state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) in order to support the troubled institution, a source told Blomberg.

According to data of the Moscow Exchange, the stake’s market price is about 100 billion rubles.

In April, Gazprom’s management proposed paying 7.4 rubles per share in dividends for 2015. The dividend payout could account for 50% of the company’s 2015 adjusted net profit calculated under RAS, which more than doubled on the year to 403.523 billion rubles. But the company’s net profit under IFRS surged to 787.1 billion rubles in 2015 against 159 billion rubles in 2014.

Earlier, Igor Shatalov, first deputy head of Gazprom’s financial and economic department, said that the company’s board of directors will make a final decision on dividend recommendation on May 19.

(64.3334 rubles – U.S. $1)

End