The shares of the Russian coal producer Raspadskaya dropped by around 15% on the Moscow Exchange after the company’s board of directors recommended paying no dividends for 2017, when the company’s net profit increased by 70%, to $319 million, according to the exchange’s data.
The shareholders will consider the board’s recommendation at an annual general meeting on May 17. The register for the meeting will close on April 22.
After a serious accident at a mine in 2010, Raspadskaya paid dividends only for January-June 2011 of 5 rubles per share, or a total of 3.9 billion rubles. In 2016 the company’s shareholders decided to spend 6.75 billion rubles of the net profit to cover losses of previous years, and to not distribute the remaining 6.2 billion rubles.
Raspadskaya is a part of U.K.-based steel and mining giant Evraz, which operates mainly in Russia. (Prime/Ukrainian metal)