Kcell shareholders decided to postpone dividends for 2021

20.05.22 16:01
/KASE, May 20, 2022/ – Kcell JSC (Almaty), whose securities are officially listed on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), has provided KASE with the following communique: quote Kcell Joint Stock Company ("Kcell" or the "Company") (KASE: KCEL), one of the leading provider of mobile telecommunications services in Kazakhstan, announces that the Annual general meeting of shareholders (AGM) of Kcell JSC held on May 19 of this year decided to postpone the distribution of net income for payment of the 2021 dividends. This was proposed by a major shareholder of Kcell JSC - Kazakhtelecom JSC, which owns 51% of the shares in Kcell. The country's largest telecom operator referred to the unstable economic situation, currency risks and the need for Kcell JSC to focus on the capex program. The current unstable economic situation in the world had a great impact on the current activities of Kcell JSC. Kcell JSC managed to achieve a rapid recovery of business and continued to demonstrate growth in key financial indicators, but at the same time, it is now impossible to exclude new external risks for the Company. It was, therefore, proposed to postpone the payment of dividends and instruct the Board of Directors of Kcell JSC to, by 15 September 2022, submit proposals for the distribution of retained earnings for previous periods based on the company's performance in the first half of 2022. It was also proposed that the Company should use the retained funds to invest in new projects, primarily in social ones: providing broadband access in rural areas, building new base stations and other infrastructure, as well as improvement of service quality. unquote The full press release is available on KASE website – https://kase.kz/files/emitters/KCEL/kcel_relizs_200522_1.pdf [2022-05-20]