Poland's Tauron aims to resume dividends under new 10-year strategy
Recasts headline, adds background and stock move
GDANSK, Dec 17 (Reuters) -Tauron TPE.WA, one of Poland's biggest energy utilities, aims to resume paying a dividend from 2029 under a new 10-year strategy running to 2035, the company said on Tuesday.
The group last paid a dividend in 2015 on 2014 profit, before halting the payments to focus on investments.
It now plans to pay a dividend of 0.5 zlotys per share from 2028 profit and to lift the payout by 6% annually until it reaches 0.7 zlotys per share in 2035, it said.
At 0831 GMT shares in the company were up 5.5%, and were the top gainers in Poland's mid-cap MWIG40 .MWIG40 index.
Tauron is also aiming for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to pass 13 billion zlotys ($3.20 billion) by 2035, more than doubling from 6.1 billion zlotys in 2023.
The company also outlined plans to decommission coal-fired units by 2030 except for its 910 MW unit in Jaworzno, a move that comes amid falling profitability from its core coal-fired power generation fleet.
That has been pressured by costs associated with carbon emission rights and the rising proportion of electricity production attributed to renewable sources.
The coal asset spin-off was first mulled by the previous government, which aimed to bundle the assets into a new state-owned company, but the plan was scrapped last year with an alternative scenario yet to be presented.
Tauron is planning to boost its capital expenditure to 100 billion zlotys between 2024 and 2035, allocating 60% to developing and modernising its distribution infrastructure and 30% to renewable energy sources and electricity storage.
($1 = 4.0566 zlotys)
Reporting by Rafal W. Nowak and Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Susan Fenton and Jan Harvey
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