Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was nominated to the company’s board of directors, but “strong political pressure in his country” ultimately resulted in his nomination being withdrawn.
The shareholders of the Russian gas giant Gazprom decided on Thursday at the annual general meeting to suspend the payment of dividends for the 2021 financial year. Famil Sadígov, vice president of Gazprom’s board of directors, announced in a statement having decided that in the current situation it is not advisable to pay the dividends for 2021.” As a result of this decision, the consortium’s shares fell to 32.8% on the Moscow Stock Exchange, although they later recovered somewhat with a final loss of about 30%.
According to Sadígov, Gazprom’s priorities at the moment are the implementation of the investment program, which includes the gasification of the regions of the Russian Federation, preparation for the coming winter and, of course, we must be ready to meet the obligation to taxes to be paid. Initially, it was planned to pay 52.53 rubles per share, which corresponds to 1.24 trillion rubles (22.5 billion euros).
The shareholders also approved technical changes to the general meeting rules and renewed the composition of the board of directors. One of the nominees was former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, but, in Sadígov’s words, “due to strong political pressure in his country, he had to withdraw his consent to the nomination.” For the third consecutive year, the meeting will take place online.
The authorized share capital of Gazprom consists of 23.674 million ordinary shares. The Russian state controls more than 50% of these titles, directly 38.37% and through the state-owned companies Rosneftegaz 10.97% and Rosgazifikatsia 0.89%.
The decision to suspend the payment of dividends has impacted the ruble, whose price has reached abnormal levels in recent weeks given the state of the country’s economy. The Russian currency added more than 3.5% to 51.25 against the dollar, towards 50 it reached on Wednesday for the first time since May 2015.
Against the euro, the ruble rose 4.3% to 53.55, after crossing 53 for the first time since April 2015 earlier this week. The ruble has become the best performing currency in the world this year. sanctions were imposed after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.
But the ruble’s strength has raised concerns among the government and exporting companies as it reduces revenues from the sale abroad of commodities and various commodities paid for in dollars and euros. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced that Russia could cut state spending and channel resources for foreign exchange interventions to counter the strengthening of the ruble, which seriously threatens fiscal revenues.
The Russian central bank could also ease upward pressure on the ruble by cutting interest rates as inflation slows and the economy needs cheaper credit. The Bank of Russia is expected to cut its benchmark interest rate from 9.5% to 9% on July 22.
Source: La Verdad
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