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February 22, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
49%, from 36% last year, assuming [its Turkish subsidiary] DenizBank sale has been closed by the time of the company’s decision on dividends, scheduled for early April). Gazprom is raising its dividend per share (DPS) to RUB10.40, resulting in absolute payments of RUB239bn. Despite that, the company remains behind [privately owned metal company] Norilsk Nickel, with total payments of RUB260bn,” Ilya Piterskiy of VTBC said.
The gas giant’s oil arm, Gazprom Neft, is another state-owned enterprises (SOE) making a notable increase to its dividend flow, up to RUB133bn (+50% vs. last year).
Among the less enthusiastic is oil minor Tatneft (RUB84bn vs. RUB161bn in 2017), as the company has already paid 3Q18 interim dividends. Severstal (down to RUB94bn) and Alrosa (RUB71bn) cut their payments as well, reports VTBC.
“We note that 14 companies out of the top 15 with the highest absolute payments are ‘exporters’. Privately owned oil company Lukoil (RUB163bn) and NLMK (RUB109bn) have joined the leaders.”
The Russian financial market is continuing to deliver a high dividend yield, with the RTS next 12-month dividend yield at 6.6%, according to VTBC’s numbers. The majority of exporters’ dividends are above the Eurobond yield.
Among them, VTBC highlights the long stand-
ing highest payer, privately owned oil company Surgutneftegas prefs (16%), Norilsk Nickel (12%), Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) (11%), steel mill Severstal (10%), Novolipetsk Metallurgi- cal Kombinat (NLMK) (10%) and Alrosa (10%) with double-digit yields.
As for domestic companies, rail company Globaltrans (14%) remains one of the leaders.
This year, Moscow Exchange (MOEX) (13%) is also offering a double-digit yield, but this is likely to be a one-off as the company returns to interim dividends.
Russian utility Enel Russia (13%), LSR Group (LSR) (12%), utility FSK (11%), pipemaker HMS Group (11%), children's toy store Detsky Mir (11%) and Sberbank prefs (10%) are all also paying double digit dividend yields.
Russian cutthroat online taxi business, with development officer of Vezet Ilya O’Guy
Russia’s taxi business has become ultra- competitive. Already running for several years, the incumbent Yandex.Taxi subsidies its drivers and won’t go into profit until maybe this year.
It has already forced Uber into a merger and may IPO in the next two years. In this shark tank the gypsy cabs have all but disappeared as it is cheaper to take an official cab, but there is room in the market for several players.
Vezet is Russia’s second largest taxi aggrega- tor and grew up in regions on the wrong side of the Ural mountains. It is battling it out with the incumbent but has a solid toehold in Russia’s biggest and not so big regional cities.
Ben Aris
editor-in-chief, bne IntelliNews
Ilya O’Guy
development office of Vezet
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