Gazprom’s profit went to the budget – Kommersant

Gazprom, which reduced exports to the EU countries by more than 40% after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by the same amount in 2022 and decided not to pay final dividends for 2022. The drop in net profit in the company is explained primarily by an increase in the tax burden, and the decision to waive dividends is explained by the payment of historically high interim dividends for the first half of 2022. Analysts believe that it is not worth waiting for high dividends in the coming years – until the restructuring of gas exports to the east.

The Board of Directors of Gazprom recommended that shareholders not pay dividends for 2022, said company May, 23rd. The annual absentee meeting of shareholders will be held on June 30. The company’s decision was due to the fact that it paid shareholders 1.2 trillion rubles. interim dividends (51 rubles per share). According to its dividend policy, Gazprom must send 50% of its adjusted net income to shareholders. At the end of 2021, the company for the first time refused to pay dividends, preferring to direct funds to the investment program and pay taxes, this decision provoked a collapse in the stock market. But in the first six months of 2022, the company received a net profit of 2.5 trillion rubles. and approved the payment of interim dividends for the first time in its history.

“Taking into account adjustments for non-monetary items, the size of the dividend base for 2022 exceeded net profit by 78% and reached 2.2 trillion rubles. At the same time, the amount of interim dividends sent to shareholders for the first half of 2022 amounted to 1.2 trillion rubles, or 55% of Gazprom’s adjusted net profit under IFRS for the entire 2022,” commented the refusal of dividends for the year, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom » Famil Sadygov.

Net income of Gazprom, as follows from the later disclosed regular IFRS financial statements for 2022 (.pdf), fell by 41.4% to RUB 1.226 trillion due to higher taxes in the second half of the year and asset impairment.

In fact, in the second half of 2022, the company was unprofitable, but it must be taken into account that during this period it had to pay 1.248 trillion rubles. in the form of an additional increase in the severance tax

Gazprom’s exports to non-CIS countries in 2022 decreased by 45.5%, to 100.9 billion cubic meters, production – by 20%, to 412.6 billion cubic meters.

Gazprom’s revenue in 2022 grew by 14.7% to 11.7 trillion rubles, EBITDA amounted to 3.6 trillion rubles, which is comparable to the results of 2021. Loss from impairment of non-financial assets last year amounted to 419.6 billion rubles. against 56 billion rubles. a year earlier, this amount includes impairment of construction in progress and investments in associates. In the new financial statements, Gazprom no longer provides separate data on most of its associated enterprises, including on the companies operating the Nord Stream gas pipelines (they were blown up in September 2022), as well as on Gazprom Germania, which the German authorities took under external management and renamed SEFE. Therefore, it is impossible to say unequivocally whether Gazprom has already taken into account the loss of these assets and to what extent.

The volume of investments of the company for 2023 will amount to 3.06 trillion rubles. against 2.58 trillion rubles. a year earlier. The level of debt burden in terms of net debt / EBITDA amounted to 1.1 in ruble terms at the end of the year.

At the end of 2023, one should not expect significant dividend payments from Gazprom, believes Sergey Kondratiev from the Institute of Energy and Finance, as Gazprom increased its investment plans by a third, while the company will annually pay an increased MET on gas (an additional 600 billion rubles per year). “Given these factors, I think that dividends in 2023 will be rather symbolic and this situation will continue for several years while the company carries out structural adjustment, redirecting export flows to the east,” he believes.

Tatyana Dyatel