20 Apr 2018 11:00

Board of Kazakhstan's Kcell recommends paying 87% of 2017 net profit in dividends

ALMATY. April 20 (Interfax) - The board of directors of Kazakhstan-based mobile operator Kcell have recommended that dividends of 11.678 billion tenge, or 87% of the company's net profit in 2017, be paid, the company said in a statement published by the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

Dividends will be paid at 58.39 tenge per common share.

Kcell's 2017 net profit was 13.434 billion tenge.

As of January 1, 2018, the company had 200 million common shares, all of which were placed.

Last year, Kcell paid 11.678 billion tenge, or 70% of its 2016 net profit, in dividends.

The major shareholders of Kcell are the Sonera Holding (24%), Fintur Holdings (51%), the Central Depository of Securities (13.24%), and Freedom Finance (9.08%)

There are three GSM mobile operators in Kazakhstan: Kcell (the Kcell, Activ, and Vegaline brands), KaR-Tel (the Beeline brand controlled by Russia's VimpelCom), and the merged Tele2 Kazakhstan and Altel.

The current exchange rate is 325.79 tenge/$1.