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Gov't requests Romgaz to pay 2017 dividend early
Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz [BSE:SNG] said it has received a request from the government, its majority shareholder, for an early distribution of 750 million lei ($196 million/163 million euro) in dividend for 2017, seenews.com informs.
Romgaz board will now convene to decide on a date for the ordinary general meeting of the company shareholders, which will have the approval of the request as the main item on the agenda, Romgaz said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, late on Friday.
The government owns 70% of Romgaz's share capital, with the balance of 30% in free float on the BVB. Usually, dividend for the current year is paid in the second or third quarter of the following year. In June, Romgaz shareholders decided to distribute a gross dividend of 3.82 lei ($0.93/0.83 euro) per share for 2016, up from 2.7 lei per share paid for 2015. Of the total, 2.40 lei per share will be paid from the 2016 net profit of 1.02 billion lei and the remaining 1.42 lei per share will be paid from retained earnings from previous years.
This distribution of dividend from 2016 net profit was made taking into account a memorandum from the finance ministry which said the company should distribute as dividend at least 90% of the profit. Romgaz's net profit surged 41.1% year-on-year in the first half of 2017 to 868 million lei on the back of higher gas and electricity sales and lower expenses.
Total investments decreased by an annual 3% to nearly 222 million lei in the period under review, or 47% of the company's H1 investment plan of 471 million lei. Romgaz has scheduled total investments of 1.14 billion lei for 2017. In June, US-based General Electric (GE) said it was awarded an order from the consortium Duro Felguera - Romelectro for core technology in the Iernut power plant operated by Romgaz.
With a planned installed generation capacity of 430 megawatts (MW), the Iernut project in Mures county, in central Romania, will be Southeast Europe’s largest gas project in five years. The project is Romania’s largest public investment in conventional power in 20 years with a total investment of 269 million euro ($301 million) from Romgaz, announced in November last year.
In April 2016, Romanian blue chip investment fund Fondul Proprietatea sold its entire remaining stake of 5.85% in Romgaz for $137.2 million. Shares in Romgaz traded flat at 31.9 lei lei as of 1342 CET on Monday on the BVB.