OREANDA-NEWS. July 05, 2010. Uralkali held their Annual General Meeting in Berezniki (Perm Territory).

Uralkali’s Director General Vladislav Baumgertner reported the company’s 2009 results to the shareholders. A decline in global demand for potash fertilizers resulted in the company’s average utilization rate of 48% in 2009. Production of potassium chloride was down 45% to 2.6 million tonnes year-on-year. With the global potash market adversely affected by unfavourable economic conditions throughout the whole of 2009, Uralkali’s financial results deteriorated compared to 2008.  The company’s net revenue under IFRS (sales revenue net of freight, railroad and transport costs) was 29.3 billion roubles in 2009. Adjusted EBITDA (the company’s operating revenue plus accumulated depreciation and amortization of intangible assets) was 16.4 billion roubles for the year. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 56%. The company’s net profit was 9.1 billion roubles.

Uralkali took advantage of lower capacity utilization to revamp and modernize the existing production in 2009. The company also implemented a programme to increase production capacity to 7 million tones in 2012. The company’s total capital expenditure was only 2% lower year-on-year at 14.1 billion roubles.

The Annual General Meeting approved the company’s annual report and financial statements. Shareholders resolved to remunerate independent directors for their work on the board’s committees, allocating 16.8 million roubles for this purpose. It was resolved not to remunerate the other Board members. Additionally, the AGM approved paying out of 3.6 billion roubles in dividends (1.70 rubles per ordinary share) for 2009. Shareholders approved BAT-Audit as Uralkali’s Auditor for 2010 and elected the Internal Audit Commission and Board of Directors, the latter constituted by the following persons:

Yury Gavrilov

Andrei Konogorov

Anna Koff

Kuzma Marchuk

Denis Morozov

Vladimir Ruga

Dmitry Rybolovlev

Hans Jochum Horn.