TATNEFT ABANDONED THE MORATORIUM ON BANKRUPTCY

The corresponding statement of the TATNEFT Company on the refusal to apply the moratorium, adopted by the Government until October 6, 2020, was published on the website of the federal bankruptcy register (fedresurs.ru).

Experts suggest that the organization was forced to take a rather risky step, as it plans to pay dividends to its shareholders. The fact is that the companies that are under the protection of the moratorium do not have the opportunity to repurchase shares (which means to make the so-called buyback), and they are also prohibited from paying dividends.

Earlier, at the August board of directors, it was decided to pay dividends to the owners of Tatneft for the first six months of 2020. They were supposed to amount to 9 rubles 94 kopecks for each share of any kind.

At the moment, the company's capitalization is a little over 2.3 billion rubles, which are divided into the same number of shares. 147.5 million of them are preferred shares. This means that if a positive decision is made, the company will be able to spend more than 23 billion rubles on payments, which is, in fact, the full amount of profit received over the same time period.

We should recall that the moratorium that has been previously introduced by the Government of the Russian Federation does not allow the initiation of bankruptcy by external creditors, as well as recovering from the pledged property. The moratorium is capable of suspending enforcement proceedings for penalties, based on judicial decisions taken before its commencement.

The possibility of using the moratorium to protect the interests of the companies is one of the measures to protect those organizations that were included in the list of strategic companies, or belong to the number of industries most affected by the pandemic. Having abandoned the moratorium, TATNEFT has actually excluded itself from the register of such organizations and now may become a defendant in a bankruptcy case before the expiration of the moratorium (October 6).

It is reported that the register of shareholders who will be able to receive dividends is scheduled to be closed on October 12. The issue of the dividends themselves will be considered at the absentee shareholders' meeting on September 30. The Republic of Tatarstan, as we know, owns 36% of the shares of Tatneft. Another 24% of the shares are traded under the ADR program, and 3% of the shares held by the federal treasury.