Alrosa could pay final dividends of 2.02 rubles per share for 2023

MOSCOW. April 16 (Interfax) - The supervisory board of Alrosa has recommended paying out final dividends of 2.02 rubles per share for 2023, totaling 14.877 billion rubles, the company said.

The dividend record date is May 31.

Alrosa's annual general shareholders meeting will be held on May 20 in absentia, and the date of record for the AGM is April 25.

Alrosa transferred 3.77 rubles per share to shareholders for the first half of the year, allocating 27.765 billion rubles for dividends, equivalent to 50% of net profit for the period, in line with the company's dividend policy.

Net profit totaled 30 billion rubles for H2 2023.

The dividend payment for the first half of 2023 was the first since mid-2021, after which the Alrosa supervisory board agreed with management's opinion that payments were inappropriate. The company did not pay final dividends for 2021, interim dividends for the first half of 2022, and final dividends for 2022. The supervisory board based non-payment in the latter case on "external uncertainties" and the need to improve the company's sustainability.

Alrosa, which is Russia's largest diamond producer with one-third of the global market, was added to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List in April 2022 and to the G7 sanctions list from the start of this year, which applies, among other matters, to diamonds produced in third countries from Russian raw materials.

The company's dividend policy stipulates paying at least 50% of net profit to International Financial Reporting Standards to shareholders when the net debt/EBITDA ratio does not exceed 1.5x. Net debt was negative in the first half of 2023, and free cash flow dropped 35% year-on-year to 19.6 billion rubles.

The Russian government owns 33% of Alrosa's shares through the Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimuschestvo); the Sakha Republic, or Yakutia, owns 25% +1 share; and 8% of the shares belong to districts in Yakutia. Free float is around 34% according to the latest published data.