Moscow – PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces the results of an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGM) held on 8 December 2021.
The EGM took place in accordance with a decision of PhosAgro’s Board of Directors, which, at a meeting on 3 November 2021, commended progress on the implementation of key investment projects under the Company’s development strategy to 2025 and reviewed the Company’s financial results for 9M 2021.
The Board of Directors noted PhosAgro’s strong performance over the first three quarters of 2021. Fertilizer production increased by 0.2% year-on-year to 7.6 million tonnes. Production of the Company’s main fertilizer grades, DAP/MAP and NPK, over the first nine months of the year increased by 9% and 7%, respectively.
These results were driven by the successful implementation of an investment programme aimed at increasing productivity and making the Company more efficient, building new and modernising existing capacities, good seasonal demand in PhosAgro’s traditional markets and the excellent affordability of fertilizers for farmers.
The long-term growth in the Group’s operating performance will be driven by a new facility in Volkhov with a production capacity of 900 thousand tonnes of mineral fertilizers.
This year, the Company’s capital expenditure will reach RUB 47 billion (including maintenance), and more than RUB 250 billion will be invested in the next five years.
At the EGM, PhosAgro’s shareholders approved the decision to pay out RUB 30.303 billion in dividends at a rate of RUB 234 per ordinary share (or RUB 78 per global depositary receipt). The dividend record date was set as 20 December 2021.
“In this anniversary year for PhosAgro – our Company is turning 20 this year – we continue to increase our fertilizer production while improving operational efficiency and maintaining our commitment to ESG principles. Stable growth in terms of both our production and financial results enable us to continue to implement social and charitable programmes and to make dividend payments, while successfully implementing an ambitious investment programme. As we work hard to fine-tune our plans for the Company’s further development to 2030, PhosAgro looks to the future with confidence and is considering the possibility of building a new ammonia and urea production facility in Cherepovets. We plan to include this and other new investment projects in the updated version of our development strategy to 2025, which we will submit for consideration by the Board of Directors in the first half of next year,” said Andrey Guryev, CEO of PhosAgro and Head of the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association.