2nd Apr 2020 11:03
(Alliance News) - Hotel Chocolat Group PLC has decided against paying a dividend for the half-year, it said on Thursday.
The chocolatier declared a dividend of 0.6 pence per share for the six months to December 29, when reporting financial results for that half in late February.
However, Hotel Chocolat believes it is now "more prudent" to keep the cash within the business rather than distribute it. The firm will reinstate dividends when appropriate, it added.
Co-founder & Chief Executive Angus Thirlwell commented: "We are committed to keeping the Hotel Chocolat family together during these challenging times. We also remain confident in the company's longer-term growth plans in the UK, the US and Japan, and want to ensure we maximise the resources available to the group to leverage these opportunities, as well as others which may develop when we all emerge from the current crisis.
"My co-founder, Peter Harris, and I are confident that, by forgoing our own dividend payments on this occasion, the company's long-term outlook will be even brighter."
Shares were 3.9% lower on Thursday morning in London at 276.50 pence each.
Hotel Chocolat in late March raised GBP22 million, more than the GBP20 million expected, in a share placing at 225p. The spread of Covid-19 has hurt trading in the UK, though performance up until the virus's impact was "encouraging".
Co-founders Thirwell and Harris hold just shy of 30% of the company combined after the placing.
By George Collard; [email protected]
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