The shareholders in oil and gas company Petrom decided to award some EUR 360 million in dividends for last year, which is less than half of its record profit for the year, EUR 885 million. The dividends, which come in at a gross RON 0.028 RON per share, will be distributed starting June 18.

On the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the price per Petrom's shares – symbol SNP - was of RON 0.449.

The oil and gas company also decided to set aside an investment budget of some EUR 1.4 billion for this year, which is a quarter more than in 2012. Around 80 percent of this budget will go to exploration and production. The company has invested EUR 9 billion in Romania in the last eight years, according to its data.

In their recent meeting, the shareholders also voted for a new board in the company's supervisory committee. The board has a four – year mandate and comprises Gerhard Roiss, president of the supervisory board, who is also general manager of OMV, Petrom's majority shareholder; David Charles Davies – deputy president of this board, also CFO and deputy director of OMV; Manfred Leitner – in charge of refining and marketing with OMV; Jaap Huijskes- head of exploration and production with OMV; Hans-Peter Floren- head of gas and energy with OMV; George Băeșu – president of the National Authority for Property Restitution; Dan Lucian Vlădescu – president of the National Authority for Monitoring Public Acquisitions; Mark Mobius- executive president of Templeton Emerging Markets Group (e.n- Franklin Templeton is the management company of Fondul Proprietatea, shareholder in SNP Petrom); Riccardo Puliti – executive director with EBRD in charge of energy and natural resources.

The main shareholder in Romania's Petrom is Austrian OMV, with 51 percent of the shares, while the Economy Ministry has 20 percent, and Fondul Proprietatea – managed by Franklin Templeton – another 20 percent, according to data from the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

editor@romania-insider.com