Main gas pipelines in Lithuania will be transferred to new company Amber Grid
VILNIUS. March 7 (Interfax) - The new operator of main gas pipelines in Lithuania will be Amber Grid, which is being created via the spin-off of Lietuvos dujos' gas transmission business.
"Activities covering natural gas transmission will be separated from Lietuvos dujos, which will continue its activities, by July 31, 2013. Amber Grids will be created on the basis of the property, rights and obligations attributable to that activity," Lietuvos dujos said in a statement for the Vilnius stock exchange Nasdaq OMX's information system.
Amber Grid's shares will be quoted on the Nasdaq OMX Vilnius stock exchange.
The management board of Lietuvos dujos and the National Control Commission for Prices and Energy have approved the conditions of the company's division. However, it still has to meet with shareholder approval.
According to Lietuvos dujos' materials, its shareholders will meet in April to discuss dividend payouts "from distributable profit received from the reallocation of 160 million litai from the company's reserves." BNS calculations indicate that dividends might come to around 0.34 litai per share.
Lietuvos dujos did not indicate how its 2012 net profit, which pre-audit data show totaled 74.506 million litai (down 22.2% over 2011), will be allocated. In 2011, the company earmarked 72 million litai (15.3 cents per share) for dividends, and in 2010 it spent 120 million litai (25.6 cents) on dividends.
Tadas Povilauskas, an analyst at investment bank Finasta, said that plans to pay out dividends from retained earnings are a logical step to take before reorganization.
"It is very logical for shareholders to take some funds prior to reorganization. If you look through the investor prism, everything might possibly be better than expected, since there were several risks. One risk was that the spun-off company [Amber Grid] will not be listed. But this risk is ruled out - the company will be listed. Furthermore, investors were hoping that one of the alternatives would be to pay out dividends after the loan from Swedbank," Povilauskas said.
Last October, Lithuania's Swedbank provided Lietuvos dujos with a five-year, 72-million-euro credit in order for the company to refinance its debts and finance the future activities of its newly spun-off gas transport company.
According to the conditions of the division, the company's gas distribution activity will be spun off via the foundation of a subsidiary by October 31, 2014. Lietuvos dujos will reserve the gas supply activity for itself, including procurements and future resale.
The European Union's Third Energy Package, which stipulates that Lithuania has to break up Lietuvos dujos into three types of activity - gas transfer, distribution and supplies - has to be fully implemented by the end of 2014.
E.ON Ruhrgas International owns 38.9% of Lietuvos dujos' shares, Gazprom holds 37.06%, and the Lithuanian Energy Ministry has 17.7%.