Gazprom may have to pay 50% dividends

Gazprom may become, perhaps, the only of the large state-owned companies, which will pay dividends in the amount of 50% of its profit under IAS. According to the Kommersant’s information, this draft directive was recently sent out by the Ministry of Economy to variaous Ministries for approval. Gazprom wants to lower dividend as it has already be done, in particular, by Rosneft and Rosneftegaz. Sources of the Kommersant emphasize that there is no final decision for a while and it may be different from the original version of the directive.

A few days ago, the Economy Ministry sent draft directive to representatives of the state in the Gazprom’s Board and departments, sources familiar with the situation told the Kommersant. The key point of the document is the question of dividends - the draft implies that they will be 50% of the Gazprom’s net profit under IAS in 2015. In this case, Gazprom may pay a record amount in the history of the company - 393 billion rubles of the dividends. At the same time, the directive hasn’t yet been signed, and the Ministry of Economy continues to collect attitudes of the departments, said one of the Kommersant’s interlocutors. Another source of the Kommersant in the Government made it clear that it’s premature to talk about a consensus on the issue of the Gazprom’s dividends. Asked about whether the directive is agreed, the Ministry of Economy said to the Kommersant that "directives on Gazprom haven’t been received by the Ministry of Economy". The company itself didn’t comment on this issue.