UK dividends suffer 49% fall in Q3 - Link

Lowest Q3 payout since 2010

UK companies' Q3 dividend payouts were the lowest for ten years and almost half the level seen in Q3 2019, according to the Link Dividend Monitor.

British firms paid just £18bn to shareholders in Q3 2020 on a headline basis, 49.1% lower than their Q3 2019 total of £35.3bn and the lowest amount paid in a third quarter since 2010's £16.9bn. When adjusted to exclude special dividends, the total payout amounts to £17.7bn, 45.1% below 2019's figure. One-off special dividends fell by 90%, to £299m. Fidelity's Morse slashes exposure to European dividend cutters The data show London-listed companies have returned £51.6bn to shareholders through the first three quarters of 2020, down 44.3% from 2019's £92.6bn. Link's best-case scen...