Gazprom shareholders approve document $21 billion dividend payout By Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Gazprom shareholders backed Russia’s largest ever dividend payout totalling 1.208 trillion roubles ($21 billion)

at a unprecedented common assembly (EGM) of the state-controlled fuel big on Friday.

Shareholders backed an interim dividend of 51.03 roubles ($0.8921) per share, the fuel producer stated in a regulatory disclosure.

The whole payout is the very best in Russian company historical past.

Shares in Gazprom (MCX:) initially rose by round 5% after the announcement earlier than reversing course to commerce down by about 2% at 1020 GMT, following the broader Moscow inventory trade decrease.

Gazprom shareholders in June unexpectedly determined to not pay dividends on final yr’s outcomes, doing so for the primary time since 1998.

Dividends supply retail buyers a strategy to revenue at a time when Western sanctions have hit the worth of Russian firms.

VTB Moi Investitsii brokerage stated retail buyers could money in some 144 billion roubles from the dividend.

“We count on the second-half 2022 dividend could attain some 10.3 roubles (per share) with dividend yield of 4.7% attributable to exports decline,” it stated.

Gazprom’s fuel exports to Europe, its key income, have been falling amid Russia’s standoff with the West. Russian fuel exports capabilities have been severely hit this week following ruptures at offshore Nord Stream pipelines.

($1 = 57.0000 roubles)