OREANDA-NEWS. October 1, 2007. The Sovcomflot Board of Directors noted the Financial Statements of the Company and its subsidiaries for the first half of 2007. Financial highlights for the six months to 30 June 2007, prepared and audited in accordance with IFRS (as compared with the similar period in 2006), are as follows (in USD million): 

The Board of Directors noted with satisfaction that along with the improvement in the financial results over the similar period in 2006 and projected figures of the current year, the efficiency of the Group’s operations in the freight market also improved. The proportion of Russian liquid cargoes in the total volume of cargoes carried by the Company’s fleet amounted to 50 per cent. In the first half of the year the Group also became the largest crude oil exporter from the port of Primorsk.

The Board of Directors approved the Guidelines for Dividend Policy for 2007 – 2009 fiscal years drawn up in accordance the Government’s Resolution No.774-r dated 29 May 2006, stipulating the basic principles governing the Company’s dividend policy, the method of dividends calculation and the decision-making process regarding their distribution.

According to Igor Shuvalov, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, “A consistent dividend policy is an important element of a modern company’s corporate governance and an integral prerequisite for establishing a transparent company that is attractive for investors. Such a policy guarantees the stability of its financial model and provides comfort to rating agencies. Sovcomflot’s dividend policy has been developed with reference to the necessity of reinvesting a proportion of the company’s profits into new projects in off-shore oil and gas development and LNG transportation.”

The Board of Directors also approved the appointment of Aleksandr Kurtynin, Vice-President of Sovcomflot, and Nicholas Fairfax, Deputy Managing Director of Sovcomflot UK Ltd., as the Executive Board members. Introducing the new members of the Executive Board, Sergey Frank, President & CEO, underlined that “the strategic tasks faced by the Group require the efforts of high-class professionals in the field of corporate finance and risk management, such as Aleksandr Kurtynin and Nicholas Fairfax.”