Kazakhstan's KMG to Double Dividends

The board of directors at Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas (KMG) has agreed to pay tenge 81.7bn ($198mn) in dividends for 2019, which is around twice as much as was paid for 2018, the national oil company said on May 28.

KMG is 90%-owned by Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna and 10% by the country's central bank. The company, which accounts for around 25% of Kazakhstan's oil and condensate and 15% of its gas, posted a 67% growth in net profits last year to tenge 1.158 trillion ($3bn). 

In response to the market collapse, KMG said on May 18 that it was making redundancies, cutting the salaries of its top staff and cancelling bonuses this year.