In line with the alternative profit distribution plan, which Klaipėdos Nafta announced through the stock exchange on Thursday, the company will distribute 115.542 million litas in earnings, although previously it was said that the company’s board had proposed to distribute 71.227 million litas in profit.
The amount proposed for dividends has been left unchanged, at 56.981 million litas, or 0.17 litas per share.
Moreover, the company will transfer 3.561 million litas to the mandatory reserve. The shareholders will vote on respective proposals from the ministry on 27 April.
“The Energy Ministry has chosen Klaipėdos Nafta for the implementation of a strategically important project of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. The state now owns slightly more than 70 percent of shares in Klaipėdos Nafta, so the ministry is looking for possibilities to increase the holding,” Vytautas Plunksnis, chairman of the board of the Lithuanian Investors’ Association, told BNS.
Some analysts believe that the Energy Ministry’s wish to increase its holding in Klaipėdos Nafta might be related to its intentions to sell a stake in the future LNG terminal to foreign investors, including the suppliers of gas installations or gas.
A bill on LNG terminal, as drafted by the ministry, provided for a possibility to sell up to 20 percent of the terminal’s shares to foreign investors. The bill also said that the state should hold at least 50 percent of the terminal’s shares.
However, an adviser to Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaitė notified the Cabinet of President’s proposal that the state should hold at least 66 percent plus 1 share in the LNG terminal. Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas later said that President’s proposals would be taken into account. He would not specify how this would be done. BNS could not contact other Energy Ministry officials so far.
The state owns 70.63 percent of Klaipėdos Nafta, which is quoted on the Secondary List of the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius Stock Exchange.
2012 04 27
Energy Ministry proposes to buy more shares in Klaipėda Oil
Energy Ministry, the largest single shareholder of Lithuania’s state-owned petroleum products terminal operator Klaipėdos Nafta (Klaipėda Oil), has proposed to form a 55 million litas (EUR 15.9 m) reserve fund to buy out the company’s shares. The analysts see this proposal as an attempt by the state to increase its holding in the company.
„Klaipėdos nafta“ / Aurelijos Kripaitės/15min.lt nuotr.
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