A.Rudakov / Bloomberg

Rostelecom

Universal communications operator. Shareholders: Svyazinvest (45.3% of voting shares), Rosimushchestvo (7.4%), Mobitel (4.6%), VEB (2.4%), Konstantin Malofeev's Marshall Capital (10.7%). Capitalization: RUB 346.23 billion; revenue (IFRS, 2012): RUB 312.3 billion; net profit: RUB 35.24 billion.

Rosimushchestvo agreed with Rostelecom and sent a draft directive to the government for government representatives on the operator's board of directors, which sets the dividend amount at 25% of net profit. A federal official and a member of Rostelecom's board of directors told Vedomosti about this. The operator's board of directors must approve recommendations for dividends for 2012 on Friday. However, the government has not yet made a final decision, Vedomosti's sources say. According to a member of Rostelecom's board of directors, the government planned to do this late yesterday evening.

Rostelecom asked the government to allow it to reduce dividends to the minimum possible level. According to last year's government decision, for state-owned companies and their subsidiaries this is 25% of their net profit. In the case of Rostelecom, 25% of net profit equals 8.17 billion rubles, which is much less than the 14.96 billion rubles paid out last year. The desire to reduce dividends is related to the reorganization of the company. Shareholders who did not approve of Svyazinvest joining Rostelecom will have the right to present their shares for buyout. Since the buyout price for ordinary shares is high (136.05 rubles, while yesterday on the Moscow Exchange they cost 111.12 rubles), it is likely that Rostelecom will have to buy out the maximum amount permitted by law - 10% of the value of net assets, or approximately 30 billion rubles, sources close to the company explained.

According to a federal official, the final decision on Rostelecom dividends should be made by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversees this industry. While Dvorkovich is hesitant about signing the directive, he knows. The stumbling block is the budget's shortfall in funds, notes a member of the Rostelecom board of directors. According to the forecast plan for revenues from state-owned companies Rostelecom and Svyazinvest (which pays the state dividends from money it in turn received from Rostelecom in the form of dividends) should pay significantly more money to the budget, and its filling is not going very well right now, the official explains Dvorkovich's doubts. The difference is about 3.5 billion rubles, a person close to Svyazinvest knows.

Svyazinvest hopes that its dividends will be proportionate to those that the holding will receive from Rostelecom, says Vadim Semenov, CEO of Svyazinvest. After all, if Rostelecom pays the minimum possible dividends, then Svyazinvest, in turn, will have nowhere to get the money to pay dividends to the state. Semenov, who represents the state on the board of directors of Rostelecom, says that he will vote in accordance with the government directive in any case, but draws attention to the fact that with the minimum dividends of Rostelecom, payments on ordinary shares owned by Svyazinvest will be almost half as much as on preferred shares. In addition, the amount of dividends in Rostelecom's budget that is planned to be paid this year is significantly higher than the minimum possible, he recalls. We are talking about 15 billion rubles, a member of the board of directors of Rostelecom and an employee of the operator know.

A representative of the Federal Property Management Agency and Dvorkovich's press secretary declined to comment.

Rostelecom dividends are stuck in the government