PDZ.L Share News (PDZ)

WARSAW, March 13 (Reuters) - Poland's JSW, theEuropean Union's largest coking coal producer, could pay adividend next year once it has paid off its bondholders, ChiefExecutive Daniel Ozon said on Tuesday.

"We want to be a dividend company," Ozon told reporters.

"The company has not paid out dividends for many years andwe will definitely try to pay out a dividend next year," hesaid, adding that the company intended to maintain this dividendpolicy over the longer term.

JSW, which almost collapsed in 2015 when coking coal pricesslumped, said on Monday it would again not pay a dividend forlast year despite reporting a forecast-beating jump in netprofit.

"If we wanted to pay out a dividend now, we would have topay off our bondholders," Ozon said.

The company hopes that thanks to new bond issues plannedlater this year it could refinance its existing debt which nowmostly includes bonds worth 517.5 million zlotys ($152.4million) and $94 million.

Ozon said JSW was considering new bond issues in Poland andthe United States to be able to refinance its existing debt andraise funds for investment. JSW sees its capital expenditurerising to 1.8 billion zlotys from 1.02 billion last year.

A benchmark $500 million bond issue in the United Statescould possibly take place by mid-2018, Ozon said.

JSW, which plans to increase its total coal output to 18.2million tonnes in 2030 from 15.4 million expected this year,plans to talk to Australia's coal firm Prairie Miningabout potential cooperation on Prairie's coal projects inPoland.

"I can imagine we set up a special purpose vehicle withPrairie and potentially other partners," Ozon said.

Prairie Mining said in a statement on Feb. 9 it had heldpreliminary discussions with JSW on cooperation.

On the steel import tariffs proposed by the United States,Ozon said he hoped they would be "temporary".

"As for today, we do not see a significant risk, we aretalking to clients, monitoring the situation," Ozon said.($1 = 3.3956 zlotys)(Reporting by Agnieszka BarteczkoEditing by David Goodman and Adrian Croft)