The secret of Gazprom's generosity has been revealed

On Tuesday, Gazprom surprised shareholders by revising its dividend recommendation for 2018, increasing payments by 150 billion rubles. The secret of generosity turned out to be simple - a compromise with the Ministry of Finance, which has long demanded that state-owned companies increase dividends to 50% of profits according to IFRS.

• A person close to the concern told Vedomosti about the compromise between Gazprom and the Ministry of Finance. The agency insists that all state-owned companies allocate at least 50% of their consolidated net profit to dividends, but Gazprom was going to pay only 17%. The new recommendation will increase payments to 27% of profits.
• In exchange for the increase, the government will not raise the mineral extraction tax for the concern or will increase it, but only partially, a federal official told the publication. Before this, officials had already twice compensated for Gazprom’s low dividends by increasing the mineral extraction tax, but in relation to all other shareholders of the concern, except the state, this was not very good.
• The main question for shareholders is whether high dividends will become a new benchmark for Gazprom or whether this was a one-time action.

Read also: Attraction of unprecedented generosity: Gazprom will set an all-Russian record for dividends