Segezha waives moratorium on bankruptcy, retains right to pay out dividends

MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - Segezha Group forestry holding, the timber-industry asset of AFK Sistema , has waived the moratorium on initiating bankruptcy proceedings based on petitions filed by creditors, according to the company's statement and the corresponding information posted in the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information.

As of April 1, 2022, the government has introduced a six-month moratorium on initiating bankruptcy proceedings based on petitions filed by creditors regarding legal entities, individual entrepreneurs, and citizens. An issuer must waive the moratorium in order to retain the right to pay out dividends and redeem shares via a buyback.

Segezha's management has said that there are not any plans thus far to conduct a buyback, and that it remains one of the few companies that has retained dividend payments.

At the annual meeting scheduled for May 21, Segezha shareholders are to consider paying out dividends for 2021 at 0.64 rubles per share, totaling 10.041 billion rubles, in addition to the nearly 6.59 billion rubles previously distributed for 9 months, or 0.42 rubles per share. The company has a dividend policy that envisages annual payments of 3 billion rubles to 5.5 billion rubles until 2023, inclusive, and the allocation of 75%-100% of the adjusted FCF to dividends from 2024 to 2026.

Segezha Group is a vertically integrated international timber-industry holding that unites the logging and timber processing assets of AFK Sistema. In April 2021, Segezha Group held an IPO that generated 30 billion rubles. The company has 24.25% of its shares in free float; AFK Sistema owns 62.2%; the Bonum investment company owns around 13%; and the members of the board of directors and the executive board own a total share of 4.4%. The charter capital is divided into 15,690,000,000 ordinary shares at a par value of 0.1 rubles per share.