Russian govt, RusHydro management preparing plan to improve company's economic situation - Deputy PM Trutnev

MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - The Russian government and PJSC RusHydro management are jointly preparing proposals to improve the company's economic situation, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev told reporters.

"RusHydro's main problem is that it pays for coal at market price, but maintains tariffs in the regulated sector. The economy does not function this way," Trutnev said.

"They [the proposals] are at a high level of readiness," he said.

"I do not know whether there will be dividends. However, could dividends be used as one of the ways to improve the situation? They could," Trutnev said regarding potential payments from RusHydro to shareholders.

RusHydro's borrowed funds were estimated at 466.99 billion rubles in January-September 2024. The company characterized the debt burden as moderately balanced, with net debt/EBITDA at 3.3x at the end of the reporting period.

Meantime, the company's shareholders have still not reached a decision on paying out dividends for 2023.

"I believe that paying dividends at today's cost of loans is a rather complicated issue," RusHydro CEO Victor Khmarin told Interfax in autumn 2024, emphasizing that this is a top-down matter and depends on the principal shareholder, namely the Russian government.

RusHydro shares extended their gains on the Moscow Exchange following the news: they were up 2.9% at 0.5614 rubles per share at 2:06 p.m., peaking at 0.5709 rubles, their highest since August 2024.

RusHydro's principal shareholder as at the end of September 2023 was Russia's Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimuschestvo) with 62.2%, state-owned VTB Bank owned 12.37%, and En+ Group held 9.61%.