BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 23
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
The Board of Directors of Norway’s Equinor has decided a cash dividend of $0.09 per share for the first quarter 2020, a reduction of 67 percent compared to fourth quarter 2019, Trend reports with reference to the company.
“Equinor has already taken forceful actions to strengthen our liquidity and financial resilience under the current circumstances. In this extraordinary market situation, we have now also decided to reduce the cash dividend for the first quarter 2020 by 67 percent, compared to the proposed fourth quarter 2019 dividend,” said Eldar Sætre, president and CEO of Equinor ASA.
Equinor has recently launched several actions to increase financial resilience in response to the current market conditions: Suspension of buy-backs under the share buy-back program; Launch of a $3 billion action plan in 2020 to strengthen financial resilience from capital expenditures, operating costs and exploration expense reductions; Bond issuance of $5 billion.
The purpose of the combined efforts, including a reduction in dividend, is to secure balance sheet capacity, strengthen liquidity and support continued investments in a high-quality project portfolio. This provides for long term competitive growth and shareholder value.
With the actions previously announced Equinor can be organic cash flow neutral (1) before capital distribution in 2020 with an average oil price around $25 per barrel for the remaining part of the year.
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