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Nornickel management considers it necessary to apply balanced approach to dividends

The company’s free cash flow totaled $1.4 bln in 1H 2025, while adjusted cash flow amounted to $224 mln

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Norilsk Nickel management believes that it is necessary to apply a balanced approach to dividend payments, which suggests that the need to manage the level of debt burden is taken into account in recommendations in addition to the amount of free cash flow, First Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Sergey Malyshev said during a conference call for investors, a company representative told TASS.

"In the current conditions, we consider the company's financial stability an absolute priority, and we believe that paying dividends at the expense of increasing debt in the current macroeconomic conditions is destructive for the company's shareholder value. That said, the management is particularly focused on the level of debt burden now. The management believes that it is necessary to apply a balanced approach to dividend payments, with the need to manage the level of debt burden taken into account in addition to the amount of free cash flow," he said, adding that the issue of dividend payment itself falls within the competence of the board of directors and the general meeting of shareholders.

Nornickel’s free cash flow totaled $1.4 bln in 1H 2025, while adjusted cash flow amounted to $224 mln. The company's management has repeatedly stated that it plans to use free cash flow as the basis for dividend payments.

According to Nornickel’s dividend policy, when developing a recommendation to the general meeting of shareholders of the company on the issue of determining the amount of dividends, the board of directors is guided by the fact that the amount of annual dividends on the company’s shares should equal at least 30% of consolidated profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) calculated for the group of companies. Meanwhile in determining the amount of dividends, the cyclical nature of the markets for metals produced by the company, as well as the need to maintain a high level of creditworthiness, are taken into account, according to the documents.

Norilsk Nickel is a diversified metals and mining company. Its production units are located in the Norilsk Industrial District, on the Kola Peninsula and the Trans-Baikal Territory in Russia, as well as in Finland.

Among the main shareholders of Nornickel are Interros owned by Vladimir Potanin (holds 37% of shares) and Rusal founded by Oleg Deripaska (26.39% of shares).