“The announcement of additional dividends, an event that the market feels stands slim chances of happening, is a pleasant surprise to investors and leads to upward trends of the market,” says broker Alin Brendea, deputy general manager of Prime Transaction.
“It’s what we saw with Romgaz and the response may replicate in similar situations.”
Romgaz (SNG.RO), the main natural gas producer of Romania, will disburse an additional 501 million lei (EUR107 million) in dividends at the request of its main shareholder, the Energy Ministry. Romgaz officials said the company would resort to loans for extensive investments.
The Romgaz situation is repeating with other companies, however.
“There’s a memo that went to every company,” market sources say. “We must assess our reserves. Most likely the Finance Ministry is running short of cash. We are doing our calculations,” the quoted sources say.
Nuclearelectrica the operator of the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda confirmed receipt of the `memo’.
“Nuclearelectrica got a memo from the majority shareholder, the Energy Ministry, on the enforcement of the government ordinance 29/2017 on disbursement/redisbursement of the amounts recorded as profit reported and other reserves,” the company officials said.
Hidroelectrica representatives did not return the call for comment by press time, but considering the results announced for the first nine months, the energy producer will probably be the biggest ‘donor’ of additional dividends. Hidroelectrica posted RON3.2 billion revenue in January-September, as much as in the entire 2017, and RON1.98 billion gross profit, compared with the RON1.6 billion posted in the entire last year.
The Energy Ministry, the entity that controls Hidroelectrica, Romgaz and Nuclearelectrica, declined comment on the additional dividends by press time.(EUR1=RON4.6630)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)