April 26 (SeeNews) - Romania’s top oil and gas group OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] said it approved an all-time high investment budget of 8 billion lei ($1.72 billion/1.6 billion euro) for 2024 comprising planned investments of 6.4 billion lei and a contingent budget of 1.6 billion lei.
The company will use the investment budget to finance low- and zero-carbon projects related to previously announced M&A transactions as well as other opportunities that it may explore depending on economic developments, OMV Petrom said in a press release on Wednesday.
The oil and gas group will also distribute record-high gross dividend of 0.0413 lei per share for financial year 2023, for a total amount of 2.6 billion lei, it added.
Last year, OMV Petrom booked a net profit of 4.03 billion lei, down from 10.3 billion lei in 2022.
In January, OMV Petrom announced it will buy a 50% stake in Electrocentrale Borzesti, which owns a 1 GW portfolio of wind and solar energy assets, and will fully acquire Renovatio Asset Management, the owner of Romania's leading electric vehicle (EV) charging network.
The company will test an innovative carbon capture and utilisation installation at its Petrobrazi refinery over a period of four months, starting in June.
Austria's OMV Aktiengesellschaft holds a 51.157% stake in OMV Petrom. The Romanian economy ministry owns 20.698% and 28.145% is free float on the Bucharest bourse and the London Stock Exchange.
Shares in blue-chip OMV Petrom changed hands 0.51% higher at 0.6905 lei by 0921 CET on April 26 on the Bucharest bourse.
(1 euro=4.9763 lei)
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