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PJSC PHOSAGRO - PhosAgro Board Recommends RUB 3.9 bln Dividend

PR Newswire

London, March 21

PhosAgro Board Recommends RUB 3.9 bln Dividend

Moscow – The Board of Directors of PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, at its meeting today recommended that the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (“AGM”) approve a dividend of RUB 3,885 million, or RUB 30 per ordinary share (RUB 10 per Global Depositary Receipt).

The AGM will be held on 30 May 2017, chaired by Ivan Rodionov, a member of the PhosAgro Board of Directors and Chairman of the Risk Management Committee. The record date for participation in the AGM has been set as 5 May 2017. The Board has recommended that the AGM set the dividend record date as 13 June 2017.

The Board recommended the dividend after reviewing PhosAgro’s statutory accounts and consolidated IFRS financial statements for 2016, which will be disclosed on 27 March 2017. PhosAgro management will discuss the results at its Capital Markets Day on the following day.

?At the meeting, the Company’s key results for 2016, including production activities, were reviewed and the PhosAgro Annual Report for 2016 was submitted for approval by the AGM. 

The Board of Directors viewed PhosAgro’s 2016 operating and financial results as successful. PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev said: “While global fertilizer markets have been at the bottom of the cycle in recent years (in the last five years, for example, prices have nearly halved), we have managed to deliver strong production and financial performance thanks to our constant focus on optimisation of business processes, modernisation and improving efficiency.?

“?The company continues to grow and develop. We set out our goals and work towards them. Last year were were able to increase fertiliser production by 9.4% to 7.4 million tonnes. We were also delighted to be recognised by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) as the best company in Russia in 2016 based on a comprehensive set of performance indicators, including production, social responsibility, and environmental. After the commissioning of new ammonia and granulated urea capacities this year, we will have enormous potential for further organic growth.”

Reports taken into consideration at today’s meeting included: information on the work of the Board of Directors and its Committees in 2016, and the results of an assessment of the work of the Board of Directors conducted by a third party organisation.

In addition, the Board reviewed the results of the reassessment of key risks and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Company’s risk management system.

Furthermore, the Board of Directors took note of the results of work by the Company’s subsidiaries on ensuring regulatory compliance with workplace health and safety requirements at production facilities. A significant reduction in injuries across all production sites was noted. In all chemical processing facilities operated by PhosAgro, there was not a single accident causing the loss of working capacity to a member of staff.

Among other things, the Board of Directors reviewed the Company’s compliance with environmental regulations and its work on environmental protection in 2016. As a result of a continued focus on reducing the resource and energy consumption of its production sites, increased utilisation of secondary energy sources, and deeper processing of mineral ore, the controlled parameters of PhosAgro’s subsidiaries’ impact on the environment have declined to levels set out in Russian and European guidelines for best available technologies. Based on this measure, PhosAgro’s enterprises can be considered “green” or environmentally safe production sites.

The company has many initiatives and projects aimed at reducing its environmental impact and using ‘green’ industrial technologies, modernising existing production lines, and introducing new high-tech facilities. For example, a joint project with UNESCO and IUPAC provides grants for young scientists researching in the field of green chemistry. For the first time in the history of UNESCO and the entire UN system, such an ititative is being implemented on an extra-budgetary basis with support from a Russian business.

The Board of Directors took note of the candidate for the Company’s RAS auditor for 2017 and recommended that the AGM approve LLC FBK.

Also at today’s meeting, a report on related party transactions in 2016 was approved, as well as an HR policy that aims to increase employee motivation for achieving key targets and goals that have been set before PhosAgro, and at increasing employees’ social security.

Notes to Editors

PhosAgro is one of the leading global vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers. The Company focuses on the production of phosphate-based fertilizers, feed phosphate and high-grade phosphate rock (P2O5 content of not less than 39%).

The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe, the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock worldwide and the third largest MAP/DAP producer in the world (excluding China), according to Fertecon. PhosAgro is also one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia. It is Russia’s only producer of nepheline concentrate.

PhosAgro’s main products include phosphate rock, 33 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 100 countries spanning all of the world’s inhabited continents. The Company’s priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia.

PhosAgro’s shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary receipts (“GDRs”) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company’s GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.