The Gazprom Board of Directors commended the Company’s efforts with regard to investor and shareholder relations.
It was noted that the Company continues to effectively develop and strengthen its engagement with the investment community. This facilitates stable capitalization growth at Gazprom in the long term and helps reduce the cost of debt financing.
In 2021, as before, Gazprom maintained an open and constructive dialogue with shareholders and investors. The communication took place primarily online. Over the course of the year, the Company held about 100 meetings with representatives of more than 170 Russian and international investment funds, as well as a number of conference calls and individual meetings with investors and analysts. Speeches made by Gazprom’s chief officers during the Investor Day event – the largest annual meeting with investors – were broadcast on the Company’s official website and on social media.
As international investors are paying increasing attention to sustainable development (ESG), Gazprom held a number of events devoted exclusively to ESG in 2021. During these events, participants had in-depth discussions on the prospects of low-carbon development of the economy in Russia and Europe, projects in the field of hydrogen energy, and other relevant topics.
The most important steps taken by the Company in 2021 include the adoption of the Sustainable Development Policy of the Gazprom Group and the establishment of the Sustainable Development Committee of the Board of Directors. Currently, Gazprom’s sustainable development scenarios up to 2050 are being drafted.
Investment community representatives and rating agencies highly appreciate the Company’s commitment to sustainable development principles. The year 2021 saw a number of agencies specializing in ESG rankings affirm Gazprom’s ratings or revise them upward. For instance, Gazprom’s score in the CDP Water Security rating rose from B- to B.
The Company is also consistently streamlining its information disclosure procedures. To that end, the time limits for the preparation of the Group’s Sustainability Report were reduced. This year, the Report was for the first time included into the supporting materials for the annual General Shareholders Meeting.
Information transparency helps Gazprom, inter alia, keep high the demand for its debt securities. This year, the Company successfully placed two issues of perpetual bonds denominated in rubles for a total amount of RUB 120 billion and attracted some USD 5.3 billion at international capital markets. Upward of 80 per cent of the total amount of Eurobonds placed were acquired by major international investors. At the same time, Gazprom has considerably reduced its debt burden: over the first nine months of 2021, its net debt/EBITDA ratio dropped to 1.2 against 2.6 at the start of the year.
International rating agencies continue to assign investment-grade ratings to Gazprom: the ratings assigned by Standard and Poor’s and Fitch correspond to the sovereign credit rating of the Russian Federation, while the rating assigned by Moody’s is a notch higher. The Company also maintains the highest credit rating assigned by China’s Dagong (AAA).
At present, Gazprom is the leader of the Russian stock market in terms of capitalization. In the period from early 2021, this indicator grew by over 50 per cent and reached USD 103.6 billion on December 20. All Russian and international investment banks that issue analytical reports on Gazprom’s shares recommend to ‘buy’ and to ‘hold’ (according to 18 and two banks, respectively).
The Management Committee was instructed to continue taking measures to improve engagement with the shareholders and investors of Gazprom.
