Shareholders in Freight One approve paying 20.3 bln rubles in dividends to RZD before sale of 75% of shares
MOSCOW. Aug 12 (Interfax) OJSC Freight One will pay its parent company, OJSC Russian Railways (RZD), 10.255 billion rubles in dividends for the results for the first half of 2011, the company said in a statement on the results of an extraordinary meeting held on Friday.
The company will pay 11.9727981 kopecks per share by October 11. The operator's charter capital consists of 85,652,434,154 common shares at a face value of one ruble. RZD owns 100% minus one share in Freight One.
The owners of Freight One held their annual meeting on June 30 and decided to pay 10 billion rubles in dividends for 2010 before August 29. Therefore, Freight One will pay 20.3 billion rubles in dividends for 2010 and the first half of 2011.
RZD earlier told Interfax that the decision on paying dividends was made in order to avoid excessively boosting Freight One's value at its privatization auction. RZD plans to sell 75% minus two shares in the operator to a strategic investor by the end of the third quarter. RZD's board of directors approved an estimate that put the packet at 115.5 billion rubles but this estimate might be increased by 20%, RZD president, Vladimir Yakunin, earlier said.
Freight One is Russia's leading freight operator for railways. RZD owns a 100% interest in the company. Freight One currently owns around 200,000 railcars of various types. The operator transported 302.3 million tonnes of freight in 2010.