Tatneft may pay 30% of 2009 earnings as dividends

Tatneft (RTS: TATN) may pay 30% of net profit in 2009 as dividends, the company's board chairman, Tatarstan Prime Minister Rustam Minnikhanov, told journalists, reports Interfax.

Asked about the size of the dividend, Minnikhanov said: "That's all written down in the budget." Tatarstan's 2010 budget recommends that state-owned companies pay a dividend equal to 30% of profit for the year.

The day before Tatneft General Director Shafagat Takhautdinov said net profit in 2009 would rise 46% to over 50 billion rubles. Thus, the dividend for 2009 will total about 15 billion rubles.

Tatneft paid 30% of net profit in 2008 as dividends. That equaled 4.42 rubles per share or a total of 9.629 billion rubles.

Tatneft charter capital totals 2.316 billion rubles split into 2.179 billion ordinary shares and 147.509 million preferred shares. State-owned Svyazinvestneftekhim owns 33.595% of Tatneft equity (35.865% of voting shares).