Gazprom announces dividend hike after bumper quarter
Russia's Gazprom expects to pay a dividend of more than 45 rubles ($0.61)/share in 2021 on the back of soaring gas prices, its deputy chairman Famil Sadygov announced on December 21.
In contrast, the state-owned gas supplier paid a dividend of only 12.55 rubles/share in 2020, down from 15.24 rubles in 2019.
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Gazprom reported an all-time record net profit of 582bn rubles ($7.8bn) in the three months ending September 30, due to the surge in European gas prices, and it expects even stronger results for the fourth quarter.
Sadygov said Gazprom was on track to book record earnings in 2021 and even higher earnings in 2022, when it projects its EBITDA will come in at 4 trillion rubles and its net profit at 2.5 trillion rubles. Its free cash flow next year is expected to total 1 trillion rubles.
Gazprom said separately on December 21 its board had approved an investment plan of 1.76 trillion rubles for 2022, including 1.43 trillion rubles in capital expenditure. The company bases its initial investment plans on a conservative forecast for gas prices and typically expands them multiple times over the course of the year in question.