Fedun unable to say if Lukoil div to top 15% of earnings in 2011
MOSCOW. Nov 25 (Interfax) - Lukoil Vice President Leonid Fedun said he could not forecast whether dividends for 2011 would exceed the lower threshold of 15% of net profit to US GAAP.
Asked about a possible increase in 2011 dividends in relation to the growth in net profit per share (42% in January-September 2011), he said: "one can hope but we have rather a conservative position - we do not reduce dividends in bad years."
"Overall I can say that dividends will go up. You will see that by some proportion we will increase dividends. Of course they cannot be lower than 15% of net profit, as we have declared," he added.
"Will they be higher than 15%, I cannot say yet. It is a question of priorities, because the company will be making significant investments in 2012-2014," Fedun said.
Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov said during company preparations for a ten-year development strategy that dividends could in the future total over 30% of net profit. Fedun said the figure would be even higher, but did not specify any timeline.
The Lukoil website says that despite the absolute rise in dividends, Lukoil paid dividends at 15% of net profit to GAAP. There was a significant increase only in 2009 when dividends amounted to 20.86% of net profit. Dividends rose to 59 rubles in 2010 from 52 rubles but their share of net profit to GAAP dropped to 18.3%.
