YUKOS to pay unprecedented dividends

The Board of Directors of YUKOS has suggested that shareholders allocate about $2bn for paying dividends for the first 9 months of 2003, the YUKOS press service reported. This decision was made at a meeting of the Board of Directors on October 28. This amount of dividends is unprecedented for Russian companies, the press service underlined. In the event shareholders approve these suggestions at an emergency meeting, scheduled for November 28, 2003, the amount of dividends for the first 9 months of 2003 will reach $0.89 per each common share.

Additionally, the Board of Directors suggested that the process of payment of dividends should be completed before February 28, 2004. Dividends will be paid to YUKOS shareholders recorded on the register of shareholders as of September 25, 2003.

As it was reported earlier, YUKOS allocated $3.7bn for the buying up of YUKOS shares by its subsidiary. As a result of the buy up of shares and the payment of dividends for the first 9 months of 2003 (in the event they are approved by shareholders), the total amount of funds distributed among YUKOS shareholders, whose number is over 56,000, will reach $5.7bn.

© &to=http://www.rbcnews.com' target=_blank>RBC