Ministries disagree on Rosneft's dividends: 16.75 rubles per share or 8.38 rubles
MOSCOW. April 21 (Interfax) - The Economic Development Ministry and the Energy Ministry still are seeing the resolution of dividend payments for 2015 differently for Rosneft .
Two variations of the government directive on dividends were sent to Rosneft's board of directors, which will consider this issue at a meeting on April 22, a source familiar with the text of the documents told Interfax.
According to the source, the Economic Development Ministry proposed the allocation of 50% of net profit to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) towards dividends for Rosneft's operations in 2015, the Energy Ministry said 25%. So depending on the government's decision, Rosneft's dividends may be 16.75 rubles per share or 8.38 rubles.
The Energy Ministry thinks that increasing dividend payments to 50% of IFRS profit may lead to a reduction of Rosneft's investment program by 10% and a fall in production by 2%-3%, the source said.
The Energy Ministry estimates that the negative multiplier effect from a decline in Rosneft production would top 1 trillion rubles, and fiscal losses in 2016-2017 would total 100 billion rubles.
Moreover, the Energy Ministry argues that slowing the pace at which Rosneft implements projects might have a negative impact on the sale of a 19.5% stake in the company later this year.
The Economic Development Ministry's proposal stems from the government instruction requiring all companies with shares owned by the state to pay dividends for 2015 at least equal to 50% of net profit under RAS or IFRS, the source said.
The dividends will cost Rosneft 177.5 billion rubles if the Economic Development Ministry's proposal is approved or 88.8 billion rubles if the Energy Ministry's proposal is chosen.
Rosneft's RAS earnings totaled 239.4 billion rubles in 2015. IFRS earnings amounted to 355 billion rubles.
The Russian state owns 1 ordinary share in Rosneft outright, but controls a 69.5% stake via Rosneftegaz.
Rosneft paid 87 billion rubles in dividends for 2014 or 8.21 rubles per share, 36% less than the 12.85 rubles per share paid for 2013. The dividends for 2014 amounted to 25% of the IFRS net profit that year, which was down 9.8% to 350 billion rubles.