Interfax quoted Mr Igor Sechin president of Rosneft said the company plans to pay 25% of net profit in dividends on a constant basis.

He said that "I remind you that we planned to pay RUB 3.45 a share for 2011. This instruction [by the Russian president] will enable us to pay RUB 7.53 or twice as much and we plan to keep payments at this level on a constant basis."

Mr Dmitry Avdeyev a company vice president said RUB 43.2 billion would be earmarked for the additional dividends which, together with what had already been proposed would constitute 25% of net profit.

He said additional directives and a decision by an extraordinary shareholders meeting would be needed to approve the decision.

Rosneft has paid dividends on the basis of net profit to Russian Accounting Standards. This was RUB 384 billion in 2011, so if 25% of this is to be paid, the dividend per share would work out at RUB 9.05.

Source - Interfax

(www.steelguru.com)