Kazakhstan, Astana, Nov. 20 / Trend D. Mukhtarov/
Starting 2013 Samruk-Kazyna Kazakh National Welfare Fund will introduce differentiated dividend policy, the managing director, member of Samruk-Kazyna JSC Board Nurlan Rakhmetov told reporters on Tuesday.
"The amount of dividends will depend on maturity degree of the fund companies and their financial and economic conditions," Rakhmetov said.
According to him, the introduction of differentiated dividend policy is one of the measures aimed at the implementation of the recently adopted strategy of the fund till 2020.
"If you look at the evolution of the fund's dividend policy, in the early years the dividends were modest, about ten percent. Over time, the tasks and functions of Samruk-Kazyna have evolved. New challenges emerged that need to be solved. Therefore the standard of dividends was increased to 15 percent of the net profit. According to the totals of 2011, the company was paid an increased dividend of 30 percent.
The increase in benefits is due to the sufficiently serious risk of liquidity loss in our large companies, in particular, KazMunaiGas JSC. It was necessary to find funds for implementation of major investment projects. In addition, questions arose regarding BTA Bank. They led to current settlement of a question on second restructuring of the bank's debts. In this regard, a reserve cushion has to be provided. Therefore, we decided to significantly modernize the dividend policy, " Rakhmetov said.
According to the new dividend policy, the current 15-percent threshold for dividend payment will be maintained for growing companies which do not yet have a stable cash flow and stable monetary results. Financial stability ratios will be applied to the real sector companies, on the basis of which the amount of dividend will be calculated.
Expenses of the company on investment and innovation projects will also be taken into consideration.
"In other words, if the company is implementing breakthrough ideas, the amount of dividend decreases," Rakhmetov said.
Dividend stratification does not cover development institutions working under the fund (Development Bank of Kazakhstan and 'Damu' Entrepreneurship Development Fund).
"They do not set improving profitability as the main purpose. Whatever they earn, they will be able to invest it in the further development," Rakhmetov said.
New dividend policy covers only the companies 100 percent of shares owned by Samruk - Kazyna. As for companies, the shares of which are owned by fund and retail investors, other dividend policy will be used in their regard. For instance, retail shareholders of KazTransOil JSC can count on 40 percent dividends.