For the previous year, the returns generated by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to the state grew by 35.2% up to EUR 202.4 million. The SOE profit contributions and the revenue from dividends saw the greatest rise and reached EUR 172.9 million. This has been reported in the report on SOE activities 2017 prepared by VšĮ Stebėsenos ir prognozių agentūra.
“For a long time, state-owned enterprises have not fully exploited the available resources to achieve top financial performance and make a substantial contribution to the state budget. The reform, which helped optimise the governance of state-owned enterprises and make it increasingly transparent and depoliticised, and was implemented during the accession process to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has already brought the yield. However, the capital owned by all citizens of the state has a potential of being used even more effectively and achieving even better performance. Thus it is planned to gradually centralise the governance of the companies as well as improve the nomination procedures for independent boards of directors and supervisory boards and the processes of setting expectations for the companies,” says the Minister of Economy, Virginijus Sinkevičius.
During the year, the greatest progress was made by the companies in the transport and communications sector. They will add EUR 65.7 million in dividends and profit contributions to the state budget, which is around 10 times more than in the previous year. EUR 34 million in dividends was allocated by AB Lietuvos geležinkeliai, whereas VĮ Klaipėdos valstybinio jūrų uosto direkcija allocated EUR 22.3 million, VĮ Kelių priežiūra, EUR 4.5 million, and VĮ Lietuvos oro uostai, EUR 3.4 million in profit contributions.
The return generated by the energy sector companies to the state saw a decline if compared with 2016. Dividends, profit contributions and atypical taxes to the state for 2017 year amounted to EUR 92 million, whereas in 2016 this amount had stood at EUR 109 million. This resulted from a drop of the Lietuvos energija, UAB dividends by 15.7%.
The major part of the return in the forestry sector was attributable to the raw materials tax with the forestry enterprises paying EUR 22.5 million for felled and sold timber and further EUR 4.4 million in profit contributions.
The enterprises falling under the other corporate sector allocated EUR 11.5 million in dividends and profit contributions, which was 78.8% more than in 2016. The largest contributions to the state budget were allocated by VĮ Regitra, AB Problematika and VĮ Registrų centras with their profit contributions and dividends accounting for EUR 4.8 million, EUR 1.2 million, and EUR 1.1 million accordingly.
“The return generated by the companies to the state is not the only indicator analysed in the SOE report 2017. It also reveals other less noticeable, yet highly significant aspects concerning financial performance, e.g. special obligations such as road maintenance, decommissioning of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, forestry environmental and social activities, etc. The costs for such special obligations accounted for EUR 278.6 million in the year 2017,” notes Deividas Gabulas, the Chief Analyst and Interim Director at VšĮ Stebėsenos ir prognozių agentūra.
The report on SOE activities 2017 gives an overview of the performance, executive salaries, special obligations and target return on equity across all SOEs, and analyses the situation in the key sectors and enterprises in more detail. It is the 9th annual report on SOE activities.
