Gazprom to exclude non-cash revenue and losses from dividend calculations for 2010
MOSCOW. June 25 (Interfax) - OJSC Gazprom will exclude non-monetary revenues and losses from its calculations for dividends for 2010, the company's Deputy CEO and Head of its financial economic department, Andrei Kruglov, said when answering shareholder questions during the gas giant's annual meeting.
Kruglov said that almost half of profit had been generated in 2009 following "an reassessment of financial investments, meaning that it had not been secured by real funds", adding "of course, when we talk about dividend payments, these are real funds and we can only talk about this part of profit, which is secured and, as a result, can be distributed".
He said that "the board of directors and managing committee has already instructed that definite parameters be introduced into dividend policy," adding, "Starting next year, we will exclude a portion of profit or losses, which is not determined by real cash flow, from dividend calculations".
Gazprom has traditionally paid 17.5% of its net profit according to Russian accounting standards (RAS). In 2008, losses "on paper" from the decline in Gazprom Neft's share quotations ate away at the company's profits in 2008. However, dividend calculations were not corrected for the level of non-existent losses. However, a government decision to limit dividends to a symbolic 5% of profit at 0.36 rubles per share nullified this issue.
A dividend payment totalling 2.39 rubles per share has been proposed for 2009's dividends. This equals 17.5% of the company's net profit following the subtraction of profit from reassessment of shares in public subsidiaries (largely Gazprom Neft).