GDANSK (Reuters) – Poland’s biggest oil refiner PKN Orlen has recommended its highest dividend yet of 5.50 zlotys ($1.24) per share for 2022, the company said on Tuesday.
Following the company’s takeover of gas company PGNiG and refiner Lotos in 2022, Orlen expects EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, to double to around 60 billion zlotys ($13.51 billion) in 2030.
Its share price rose by more than 5% after the strategy update.
In accordance with the new policy, PKN Orlen will make annual dividend distributions equivalent to 40% of adjusted free cash flow generated by the group in the preceding financial year.
The distribution amount will be no less than the base guaranteed dividend, which has been set at 4 zlotys per share for 2022, and will be raised each year by 0.15 zloty until it reaches 5.2 zlotys per share in 2030.
This means the base dividend will rise by as much as 49% over the decade.
Following its shift to an energy company, less narrowly focused on fossil fuel, PKN Orlen announced more ambitious renewable energy targets and envisages spending about 120 billion zlotys on green projects – or 40% of its planned capital expenditure – by 2030.
It has also committed to phasing out coal power by 2035.
The company said in 2020 that it planned to become climate neutral in the next 30 years, although Poland is the only European Union state that has not pledged to cut emissions to zero by 2050.
PKN Orlen has a target to reach over 9 gigawatts of installed capacity in clean energy sources by 2030 from a previously announced in 2020 goal of 2.5 gigawatts.
($1 = 4.4427 zlotys)
(Reporting by Patrycja Zaras, Mateusz Rabiega, Adrianna Ebert, Marek Strzelecki, Editing by Louise Heavens and Barbara Lewis)
