2015 Annual General Meeting

Rusneftegaz held our first Annual General Meeting since the changes to our board of directors were instigated in February, marking the commencement of what is a new era for our organization. At the event, which was held in Moscow on 10 April, the delegates actively debated the future of our organization in the years and decades ahead. Such talks are pivotal at this time, with key decisions pertaining to our future underway and set to be announced in the immediate future. This included matters such as revising our current corporate strategy, creating a new investment plan and considering the expansion of our operations internationally. At the same time, all those involved also reviewed our full consolidated financial statements for the previous twelve months, which were prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and have been audited by a third party. This was ratified by a vote of all our stakeholders, who also opted to approve the corresponding annual report and reappoint our auditor for this year. As to be expected, all the directors who were appointed eight weeks ago won reelection for a further year, and a ballot was held to appoint a new audit committee for our fiscal reporting for the next twelve months. Conversely, a motion to authorize a dividend payment did not pass, with those against citing a desire for our enterprise to reinvest our earnings into new infrastructure in the years ahead. This shall allow us to continue to grow and prosper, and should yield even greater results in the near future.

​Foremost, we can announce that we made a pre-tax profit of $122,5 million from overall revenues of $552,9 million for the 2014 financial year, despite a considerable deflation in the value of the Russian ruble and an extensive depression in commodity prices during the fourth quarter. It is significant that Rusneftegaz managed to remain profitable in this period, albeit the loss of value incurred as a result of foreign currency translation differences is a profound disappointment, and is unlikely to be rectified in the short term. However, the overall position of our organization remains strong, although our incoming management intends to maneuver our company and our affiliates away from our existing dependency on oil earnings in these volatile times. As such, our newly composed board of directors has undertaken a thorough and extensive review of all operations, concluding that our immediate oil production will be greatly reduced for the sake of the long-term viability of our petroleum division. This will be illustrated once the final production data for the first quarter of 2015 is published at the end of April. The major caveat of any fall in the level of our production is a corresponding decline in revenues next year, and whilst there is no direct and immediate solution to this issue, our management foresees the future of Rusneftegaz as a diversified energy conglomerate with focus and impetus placed on all facets of modern petroleum and power production.

Nevertheless, our total oil production equated to 8,35 million barrels in 2014, with an average daily extraction of 22.890 barrels. This yielded a pre-tax profit of $118,5 million from a turnover of $368,6 million in our petroleum division. Likewise, the amount of electricity we generated throughout the year amounted to 11,53 TWh, or 70,8% of our installed capacity of 1.860 MW. Such a figure culminated in a pre-tax profit of $15,5 million, derived from revenues reported at $184,3 million, although our management has greater aspirations for this particular sector of our organization in the near future. The commitment and ambition of our new board to our company is also noteworthy, with an initiative to spend over $1,0 billion on new infrastructure over the next five years to help ensure Rusneftegaz becomes a titan of the industry. In comparison, our expenditure on assets only aggregated $29,5 million last year, despite holding cash reserves of $107,7 million. At the end of the period, our company held total assets of $851,2 million, of which $300,5 million comprises electricity infrastructure, with a larger share of $431,5 million attributable to our oil division. The largest single component of our reported asset base consists of property, plant and equipment valued at $713,8 million, although this figure has fluctuated markedly during the period.

Thus, the total losses from currency conversion differences equated to $507,0 million on 31 December 2014, vastly more than the $2,3 million cost of impairment and the $40,1 million depression caused by depreciation and depletion. Whilst the worth of these assets was revised upwards by $2,2 million upon review, declines in valuations caused by the weakened ruble are thematic across our financial statements, with the figure for intangible assets now only reported at $0,2 million. Of our total reported assets, $715,4 million are considered as fixed assets with the remaining $135,8 million regarded as non-fixed assets, including $22,0 million of receivables and $5,0 million of assets held for sale, which is composed of mostly of bullion. Current assets also encompass inventories worth $1,1 million, which is constituted mainly by $0,4 million of crude oil, along with fuel, petroleum products and spare parts. One of the positives of our financial results is the increase in the value of our derivative financial instruments by $0,1 million to $0,7 million, which is recognized as a non-current asset and includes our hedging. Such a rise is reported as an element of other income in our statement of profit or loss, and comes despite the relative quandary of creating dependable price swaps and forward contracts during the year.

On the other hand, Rusneftegaz also held liabilities of $137,6 million at the end of the year, of which $37,0 million is affiliated to our petroleum production, $28,8 million is linked to our power generation and $70,6 million is the remaining sum of a loan withdrawn in 2010. In a much similar vein to our assets, all our liabilities are reported depending on their likelihood of being settled within the next fiscal year. This incorporates our non-current liabilities valued at $35,4 million, of which the largest constituent is our provisions appraised at $31,4 million, which is the approximated financial burden of fulfilling Russian regulatory requirements to recondition our oilfields upon the expiration of our extraction licenses. It also includes current liabilities accounted for at $102,2 million, consisting of the aforementioned borrowings due to be resolved next year, accounts payable valued at $27,6 million and $3,9 million of taxes payable. Along with said owed funds, Rusneftegaz also held a liability of $4,0 million regarding the differences between taxation law and the accounting tax treatment of our assets, albeit this is somewhat negated by a deferred tax asset measured at $0,7 million. Overall, our financial results for the year yielded an income tax charge of $24,8 million, although the largest levy imposed was the mineral extraction tax which resulted in a payment of $179,3 million. In conjunction with taxes other than income tax, said oil resource tariff was accounted for as a component of our costs of goods sold, with a figure of $5,3 million registered on the financial statements for the former.

Our costs of goods sold equated to $396,4 million in total, with the second-greatest constituent after the mineral extraction tax being our fuel expenses, mostly bituminous coal for our power operations. Rusneftegaz similarly paid $5,4 million under the terms of rental contracts, $2,0 million in water rates, a total of $11,7 million for maintenance and a further $45,6 million in staffing costs. Administrative expenses of $12,2 million are also reported in our statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income, as well as legal fees totaling $3,4 million, plus insurance premiums worth $0,7 million. Furthermore, the smallest facet of our income statement is operating expenses worth $8,8 million, embodying $1,7 million of transmission costs and a further $7,1 million in transportation expenditures, which involves the shipment of petroleum from the source of extraction to the local refinery. However, this figure may decline next year depending on the extent production is cut. Our new management board intends to take remedial action to ensure the short-term commercial success of our organization, and will make announcements pertaining to this at an appropriate time. Additionally, an equity contribution of $25,0 million has been made by our new ownership, after our board of directors requested additional funds to fulfil the new plans of our to-be-announced investment program. This follows the financial performance for the fourth quarter being the worst in our history. Thus, our executives are also contemplating whether to alter the amount of currency we hold in long-term deposits, with our company currently holding $5,4 million in accounts, generating a net finance income of $0,4 million. Upon a potential adjustment, finance income could be lowered to provide the security of a greater amount of liquid cash, ensuring that Rusneftegaz has adequate monetary resources to manage any material change in circumstances during upcoming financial periods.

Contrarily, our board perceives that all indicators demonstrate that our organization is in robust fiscal health, with revenue being earned through a plethora of customers, the largest of which is our main electricity generation contract valued at $192,5 million. Ultimately, our company also managed to remain profitable, and delivered revenue and earnings per share of $553 and $122 respectively, undeterred by the external economic factors of which we have no control. The long-term outlook for our oil revenues, however, will be less certain until there is a stabilization in commodity prices, by which time our board will have reviewed all available options for the sector and formulated a comprehensive plan accordingly. Likewise, the forecast for our petroleum segment in 2015 is not optimistic, but we have the capability and intrinsic resilience to ensure that our organization prospers regardless. As such, the incoming regime intends to pivot the direction of our organization away from our dependency on petroleum, and will focus more resources on the expansion of our power generation division to bring greater variety to our sources of income. Our management is projecting that the majority of our future growth will derive from such investments in electricity, and will commit further funds once the viability of the plan is proven. In the immediate term, this will involve an overhaul and modernization of all our existing infrastructure, before an eventual expansion of capacity and the purchase of further plants. Sequentially, the ambition of our ownership is to expand the Rusneftegaz to be one of the largest companies in both the Russian Federation and the world, and intends to do so as soon as possible.