ALROSA Group continued with its programme to dispose off its non-core assets. In this round, JSC Almazy Anabara’s (an ALROSA affiliated company) 9.2% shares in Almazergienbank; and a workshop of Voskhod Mechanical Plant were sold in July-September, the Company reported. “In both cases, the assets were sold at a market price determined by an independent appraiser,” ALROSA stated.

The shares of Almazergienbank, which were purchased in bulk by OJSC RIK Plus, had a transaction value exceeding RUB 200 million. The shares will be transferred by the end of November this year.

The workshop of Voskhod Mechanical Plant (Yakutsk), sold by auction in September, was bought by the Plant, at a price amounting to more than RUB 105 million.

“ALROSA is implementing the Programme of alienation of non-core assets approved by the Supervisory Board,” the Company said. “As planned, in 2018, the Company is going to sell more than 350 units of real estate, construction in progress, housing, and plots of land. The year-to-date amount of the assets sold is about RUB 31 billion.”

The implementation of the “programme of alienation” of non-core assets is expected to have a positive impact on the economic efficiency of ALROSA Group and the quality of management, thus allowing the Company’s management to focus on developing its core diamond business.

Meanwhile, ALROSA also announced that an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders approved a payout  of RUB 43.7 billion (RUB 5.93 per share), or 70% of the free cash flow as  H1 2018 profit distribution  “This will make ALROSA's dividends for 6M 2018 more than RUB 5 bn higher than its FY 2017 payout,” the Company remarked.

 The Company also noted that, in accordance with its new dividend policy, it was the first time that the General Meeting voted on dividends.

“The new policy has introduced half-year dividends in addition to full-year payments,” ALROSA explained. “Instead of net profit, the calculation is now based on free cash flow (FCF) representing the operating cash flow net of capital expenditure, as well as the Company's Net Debt / EBITDA ratio.”