UPDATE: Raspadskaya board recommends paying no dividends for 2016

(Adds comments by CEO in paragraphs 5–7)

MOSCOW, Mar 24 (PRIME) -- The board of directors of Russian coal producer Raspadskaya has recommended paying no dividends for 2016, the company said in a statement Friday.

The board has recommended spending 6.752 billion rubles of the net profit of 12.957 billion rubles to redeem a loss of previous years and leaving the remaining 6.205 billion rubles undistributed.

The shareholders will consider the recommendation at an annual general meeting on May 18. The register for the meeting will close on April 23.

Since 2009, the company paid only interim dividends of 3.9 billion rubles for January–June 2011.

CEO Sergei Stepanov said the company could consider paying dividends after 2017.

“After 2017 we will certainly return to the issue of profit distribution and we will surely return to discussion of dividend policy, but not in 2017,” he said.

The company will now focus on reducing its debt burden, which exceeded U.S. $400 million as of late 2016, he said.

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

(57.5228 rubles – U.S. $1)

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