Company's Dividends Increase 3-Fold

In a shock turn-around, Russian oil major, Surgutneftegaz, is going to more than triple its dividend payments for 2003 spending a record sum of 6.2 billion rubles. The market responded with a 5% growth in the company's stock.

Despite the good news, Surgutneftegaz continues to be one of Russia's most closed oil companies. The company is often hit hard by critcs who say back door deals and politics hamper company performance. Therefore, it is difficult to say who will receive the major pat of dividends since the company does not disclose the structure of its equity capital.

According to Alfa-bank, in 2003 the management controlled about 66% of voting shares including 36.7% of them belonging to oil company Surgutneftegaz, 99% in which belonged to stock company Surgutneftegaz. In October 2003, oil company Surgutneftegaz was reorganized into a Leasing-Production. Its owners are not known.