Rosneft says no change to dividend policy despite lower state stake

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft said on Sunday it planned to maintain a dividend policy of paying out half of its net profit despite the state lowering its stake in the company to below 50%.

Rosneft plans to continue developing offshore fields in Russia but does not plan to start any new offshore projects until after oil prices recover, it said in a statement to Reuters.

State holding company Rosneftegaz relinquished its controlling stake in Rosneft after the latter left its business in Venezuela, an adversary of Washington.

(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; writing by Andrey Ostroukh; editing by Katya Golubkova and Jason Neely)