Novatek Shareholders Approve Dividend Plan

Shareholders at Russia's Novatek have approved the payment of rubles 32.33 ($0.44)/share in dividends from profits in 2019, the company said in a statement on April 27.

This represents a 24.1% increase from the rubles 26.06/share paid from Novatek's 2018 income. Shareholders will receive the dividend in cash no later than June 16 2020. 

The company's investors also approved the appointment of nine members to its board of directors. These members included Andrei Akimov, chairman of Gazprombank; Arnaud Le Foll, general director of Total E&P Russie; Michael Borrell, senior vice president of Total North Sea and Russia; Robert Castaigne, a board member at French construction firm Vinci; Tatiana Mitrova, director of the Moscow-based Skolkovo Energy Centre; Novatek chairman and major shareholder Leonid Mikhelson; Alexander Natalenko, honoured geologist of the Russian Federation; Viktor Orlov, president of the Russian Geological Society (RosGeo); and Gennady Timchenko, a board member at Sibur and another Novatek shareholder.

Shareholders also approved the appointment of members of the company's revision commission, remuneration for that commission and the board of directors, and the election of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent auditor for 2020.