Bashneft to pay 26.3 bln rubles in 9M dividends
MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) - Shareholders in Bashneft voted at an extraordinary meeting to accept an interim dividend of 148.31 rubles per ordinary and preferred share for nine months of 2017, the oil producer said in a statement.
The total payout will be 26.345 billion rubles.
The divided record date is December 12. Dividends will be paid to nominee shareholders and trustees by December 26 and to other eligible shareholders by January 24.
Shareholders of Bashneft, which has been controlled by Rosneft since October last year, decided at the end of June this year to pay dividends for 2016 only for preferred shares at 0.1 rubles per share; a total of 2.979 million rubles would be paid for the year, compared to 29 billion rubles paid for 2015.
Bashneft's board of directors decided on May 25 to recommend that shareholders approve dividends for 2016 only on preferred shares totaling 3 million rubles.
The board also decided to consider interim dividends for nine months based on the results of January-September.
Rosneft acquired a 50.08% state stake in Bashneft in mid-October 2016. Rosneft now owns 69.3% of Bashneft, Bashkortostan owns 25.79% of ordinary shares and minority shareholders own the remainder.
Bashneft's low dividends for 2016 and plans for payment of interim dividends at the end of 2017 enabled the oil company's principal shareholder, Rosneft to save on taxes. Under the current Tax Code, a Russian organization that owns at least a 50% stake in another organization for at least 365 calendar days before a decision is made on payment of dividends pays a profit tax rate of zero on the dividends. In other cases, the profit tax rate on dividend income is 13%.
Bashneft has 147,846,489 issued ordinary shares (83.23% of charter capital) and 29,788,012 preferred shares (16.77%), par value 1 ruble each.