OREANDA-NEWS. The Raspadskaya mine announced that it could pay interim dividends of $0.05/share (implying a 1% dividend yield) for a total amount of $37.5mn - the management said that "minority shareholders should consider these interim dividends as related to Raspadskaya's interim IFRS results for the six months ended June 30, 2007."

According to estimates of research company Aton Capital, this represents about 42% of 1H07 net income, well above the 25% minimum dividend payout level officially set by the company. Raspadskaya paid $0.075/share in dividends ($58.6mn) for 2006.

Interim dividends will be payable until February 6, 2008 to shareholders on record as of October 25, 2007.

"We estimate that Raspadskaya could pay anywhere between $0.04/share (based on the company's official policy of 25% payout) to $0.07/share (based on 1H07 payout ratio). We reiterate our Buy rating for Raspadskaya with a 12-month target price of $4.70," conclude the experts.