Profil:
PGE SABudget target for dividends may be exceeded - state assets ministry's Jaworowski
Dividend income from state-owned companies this year may exceed budget assumptions, Minister of State Assets Jakub Jaworowski said. Analysis time is still needed on the coal assets spin-off, he added.
"Last year and this year we have already seen increased propensity to pay out dividends. The way the things are going we think that the target from the budget may be exceeded," Jaworowski told the CEE Capital Markets conference in London.
"If we for example take into account proposed dividend from Orlen, we can already see it is much larger than one could expected. I would say the base is what we have in the budget PLN 3.5 billion and it can be slightly higher" he added.
As he informed, analyses pertaining to the coal asset spin-off are still ongoing.
"We need to know whether coal assets are indeed loss-making, as there are some mechanisms available to support their existence and generation of power from coal which can make them more profitable. So we see that they can still generate EBITDA for utilities, which may be important factor to take into consideration when utilities seek more debt to finance green transition," Jaworowski said.
"Devil is in the details, there are also works on support mechanisms. So we need more time for analysis," he added.
pr/ pel/ han/ nl/