OMV is still considering a special dividend | newsletter

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VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrian oil, gas and chemicals group OMV plans to continue paying special dividends to shareholders in the future.

The partially state-owned company announced on Tuesday evening that these will be included as an additional tool in the existing dividend policy. The group explained that the upward dividend distribution policy currently in force, according to which the stability of dividend distribution is maintained at least, remains unaffected.

If the debt ratio is less than 30 percent, the group wants to pay back about 20 to 30 percent of its operating cash flow annually in the future. This should be done mainly through regular dividends and also as a special dividend if sufficient funds are available. In the event of a leverage level of 30 percent or more, regular progressive profits will be retained, but there will be no additional special return.

OMV has already declared a special dividend of €2.25 per share for the 2022 financial year. The reason for this is the billions in profit made due to the sharp rise in energy prices. No regular dividend has been declared. For 2021, the group paid €2.30 per share. The largest shareholder in OMV is the Austrian state, which owns 31.5 percent through ÖBAG Holding. 24.9 percent is owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala.

(Reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich. Editing by Olaf Brenner. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or [email protected] (for businesses and markets).)