Romania's gas operator Transgaz distributes dividend of 10.47 lei, OKs new managementUpdated: 29-04-2009 |

Shareholders of gas transporter Transgaz Medias (TGN) agreed today to distribute a gross dividend of 10.47 lei per share as the company alloted half of the profit obtained last year in this sense and approved the new board led by Victor Alexandru Schmidt.

Asides from Schmidt and the general director Ioan Rusu, the board is made-up of three other administrators: Mihai Busuioc, Mihai Albulescu and Ionica Raicu.

The Proprietatea Fund, created to compensate people who lost their properties during the communist regime, sued Transgaz to recover the dividends for 2005 amounting to 9.63 million lei, as well as interest payments of 2.32 million lei.

However, Transgaz says the Fund cannot make any dividend claims for 2005 as the company's sole shareholder at the time was the Economy and Trade Ministry, which received all the money.

Transgaz booked a net profit of 238.59 million lei last year, 6.5 percent higher than in the previous, following significant advance in turnover.

The state-owned gas transporter distributed 123.27 million lei for dividend payments and other 7.52 million lei for employees' participation to profit. Some 107.62 million lei will be used for financing.

Transgaz allocated 8.6 million lei of the 2008 profit to cover accounting losses in the previous years.

Transgaz business stood at 1.119 billion lei in 2008, up 7.8 percent versus the 1.038 billion lei posted in 2007. Its revenues reached 1.17 billion lei, 10.4 percent higher compared to the previous year, when they stood at 1.06 billion lei. Expenses hiked 12 percent in 2008, from 794.9 million lei to 890.8 million lei.

The company has a share capital of 117.74 million lei, divided into 11.77 million shares, at a face value of 10 lei. Romania's Finance Ministry owns 73.5 percent of the share capital and the Proprietatea Fund has 15 percent.

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