November 9 (SeeNews) - Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz [BSE:SNG] said its board has approved a request from the energy ministry, its majority shareholder, for the distribution of an additional dividend of 501 million lei ($123 million/106 million euro) for 2017.
Romgaz will pay 1.3 lei per share as additional dividend for last year, according to the board decision, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
This adds to 1.9 billion lei or 4.99 lei per share in dividend for 2017 that Romgaz has already decided to distribute to its shareholders .
The government owns 70% of Romgaz's share capital, with the balance of 30% in free float on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
Last year, Romgaz endorsed a request from the government for an early distribution of 750 million lei in dividend for 2017. Usually, dividend for the current year is paid in the second or third quarter of the following year.
Romgaz's first-half net profit fell by 10.1% year-on-year to 797.7 million lei due to higher expenses.
Shares in Romgaz traded 0.29% higher at 35.1 lei lei as of 0942 CET on Friday on the BVB.
(1 euro=4.6630 Romanian lei)